The Bonds of Friendship, Book 2
by coolhacker1025
Summary: This is a sequel to "A Missed Traffic Light or The Bonds of Friendship' It is now second year. What surprises are in store for Harry, Ginny and Hermione this year? H/Hr/G
1. The Three Summers

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 1: The Three Summers

Ginny Weasley was a witch that was going to turn eleven in a couple of months. This was not usual, as there are millions of girls around the world the same age. What was unusual was that Ginny was also going to start her Second Year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, because she was a witch.

Not only was she a powerful witch, but she was a witch bonded with two of the most powerful eleven year old students in Britain.

Her bond was with Hermione Granger (a Muggle-born), and Harry Potter (widely considered to be The Saviour of the Wizarding World for defeating a wizard variously known as 'Voldemort' or 'You-know-who'), and it caused her to receive regular reports on their mental and physical status.

That was new, having just developed towards the end of the last School Year after Harry had fought Voldemort for a second time. Ginny was a lot more used to saying and thinking the Name now.

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," Harry had said. Her brother, Ron, had completely disagreed. "You-Know-Who deserves a healthy dose of fear! He killed thousands of people!"

Thinking of Harry, she realised that somehow, none of her post was getting to Harry. She needed to bring this up to her mother.

"Mum, something is up with Harry," she said to her mum one morning at the breakfast table. "He hasn't been getting his mail."

"Well, I told the Muggles that we would get him on his birthday," said her mum. "I'm sure that they...want to spend time with him after a long year away."

Ginny gave a snort of derision. "They hate him, Mum," she said. "They treat like a house-elf. They treat him like a Malfoy house-elf. He's been barely given enough food to live."

"Just how do you know this?" asked her mum. "Harry hasn't replied to your letters, and you have certainly not been out of the house—unless of course, you found a Time Turner and are completely deceiving me."

"You know that those are illegal without clearances," replied Ginny.

Before she could say anything more, her mum said, "So's the car. Now, how do you know about Harry's living conditions?"

"He, Hermione, and I share a bond," answered Ginny. "A rather powerful one, if the look of surprise on Mme. Pomfrey's face is to be believed. I believe that right now, he's been ordered to wash the windows, clean the car, walk on the newspaper, cut the grass, and cook dinner. And they're only giving him a small slice of bread, with no butter or preserves."

"I suppose that's what your friend was talking about at the end of Term?" asked her mum. "I'll have to talk with Dumbledore and your father about this to see if we can't 'borrow' Harry sooner. Does the Headmaster know any of this?"

"He and Mme. Pomfrey both know about the bond. Pomfrey nearly fainted at the end of term. She says that there is quite a connection between the three of us."

"There has to be—Surrey and London are quite a distance away,"

\\\/

Hermione Granger lived outside of London with her two parents, who were dentists. She was also a witch who had just finished her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and would be turning twelve in September (as her birthday was on 17 September, she started Hogwarts a majority of a year later).

She was one of the people bonded to Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. Unfortunately, her parents were Muggles, and understood very little of Hogwarts and the Wizarding World. Fortunately, despite being dentists, they were extremely liberal, and more understanding of certain lifestyle choices. This didn't stop them from interrogating Hermione about her possible lifestyle choices.

"At the station, you said that Harry was your boyfriend," stated Dan, her father. "And you also explicitly referred to Ginny, was it?, as your girlfriend. In what context are you using these terms."

"I believe that your father is trying to ask if you've ..." Emma, her mum, trailed off as she rather did not want to vocalise the rest of the sentence. Instead she made a gesture with her hands.

"We've not been intimate, if that's what you're asking," responded Hermione.

"Good, because we would have been very disappointed in you if you were, young lady." said Dan forcefully. "Explain for us, then, in what context you use these words."

"In the Wizarding World, there is such a thing as a 'Bond,' which can form between people. Generally, it would be between two people destined to be spouses, but in our case, we are all bound to each other. I believe that there are quite a number of loopholes in Wizard law that Ginny would love to exploit."

"So what are the consequences of this 'Bond'?" asked Emma.

"We can communicate by just looking at each other sometimes," said Hermione. "Lately, I've been getting glimpses of their mental and physical state. Ginny is annoyed at her twin brothers for some reason. Harry is being treated like a personal slave."

She then gave the same listing of chores that Ginny had.

"What's being done about this?" asked Dan. "Maybe you could get something to him through the normal post. You know, the Royal Mail."

"He's warned against that," responded their daughter. "The Dursleys would just destroy any post that he received. Any post coming for him logically would be from 'Freaks' and 'Unnatural People' I believe their terms are."

Dan decided to switch to a different subject. "Have you started with your holiday assignments, yet?"

"I started them yesterday, dad," said Hermione.

\\\/

Mr and Mrs Dursley of Number 4, Privet Drive were quite normal, thank-you very much. They had a son by the name of Dudley, and in their opinion, there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Dursleys also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that people would find out about their secret. They had a nephew who'd come to live with them after the death of his parents. This, of course, was widely known, and not their secret.

Their secret, in their opinion, was much worse. Not only did their nephew live with them, but he was a Wizard. It was their greatest fear that someone would find out about the abnormality in the family.

The neighbours thought that Harry was the son of a drunk who died in a car crash on Halloween of '81, and that Harry himself was some sort of nutter who was mentally unstable and went to St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys.

The Dursleys were doing a good job of making sure that Harry was miserable and had almost no down-time this summer. They hoped that this would prevent him doing 'Freaky things.' At the beginning of the summer, they'd locked Harry's things in his old bedroom—the cupboard beneath the stairs.

Unfortunately for them, his things were no longer there. On the plus side for them, Harry wasn't allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts. Unfortunately for them, they didn't know it, or they would have treated him even worse.

The reason that Harry's things were no longer in the Cupboard was that Ginny had taught him how to pick Muggle locks. For some reason, she'd learned the skill from the Twins, who also could pick locks with no magic.

Hedwig wasn't happy at all, either. The Dursleys had chained her cage shut so that she couldn't get out. This was to prevent Harry sending messages to his "Freaky Friends." She longed to stretch her wings and fly and hunt and be a good owl for Her Boy. She gave Her Boy pleading looks, but understood that there was nothing he could do without getting in trouble.

At various points in the summer, he could tell that his friends were talking about him. He really hoped that Liberation Day would be soon, for as his birthday grew closer, the Dursleys got more brutal (to beat the "Freakishness" out of him, or preferably, kill him).

For not pruning the rosebushes properly, Harry got punched in the face by Vernon. For getting blood on the floor, when he collapsed after getting a concussion after being hit by Vernon, he was hit with a frying pan by his Aunt Petunia. For being in the house, Dudley attempted to punch him. Harry was able to dodge that time.

On the eve of his Liberation, Harry went to his bedroom, and found that it was already occupied by a creature about 1 to 1.5 metres tall, with large bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of Tennis Balls.

"Hello," said Harry to the creature. "Who exactly are you, and what the Devil are you doing in my bedroom?"

"I is Dobby, sir. Dobby the House-elf. Dobby is here to stop terrible things from happening at Hogwarts."

\\\/

At the Burrow, the Weasleys were having their supper. Molly had cooked mountains of food, and nearly a third was consumed by Ron.

Ron still wasn't a full member of the group yet (and would never join the Bond), because of many reasons, including the fact that he was useless, and would sometimes say insulting or rude things without thinking.

"Could a House-elf stop a person's mail?" asked Ginny.

"If their Master ordered them to, why?" asked Arthur.

"Because Harry has just received a visit from a House-elf by the name of Dobby," replied Ginny. "Apparently, there is an evil plot for this year at Hogwarts."

Molly had told Arthur about the Bond the night that she and Ginny talked. The Weasley family had talked to Dumbledore, but Harry's birthday was apparently the first day that Harry was allowed to come over. Molly had to scold Ginny many times for what she said to the Headmaster.

The Rivalry between the Malfoys and the Weasleys was historic, dating from back in the late 1200s. Traditionally, they were the two families that had _never _intermarried, though, due to other family members, they were related. For example, a Weasley had married a Black, and then one of that person's cousin twice-removed had married a Malfoy (much to the disgust of the living Weasleys).

"Oh, the only one with that much ambition is Malfoy," said Arthur gleefully. "Maybe I can catch the damned fool unawares and raid his house. There has to be something illegal in there."

"Now, don't go cutting off more than you can chew, Arthur" cautioned Molly. "He's a very powerful man, and could have you on the street before you could say 'Quidditch.'"

\\\/

After dinner, Molly and Arthur went to Ginny's room. "Can you send information to Harry?" asked Molly.

"I think so, why?"

"Tell him that we'll pick him up around three or four in the afternoon," said Arthur. "It'll be a long drive on those Muggle roads, especially because someone" he gave a significant look at Molly, who hit him, "doesn't want me using the enhancements."

"He's very excited, Dad," said Ginny. "He wants to be here as soon as possible."

\\\/

By 3:45 in the afternoon the next day, the family's Ford Anglia was parking in front of Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England. Arthur went to the door and knocked. When the door opened, it appeared that a cross between a pig and a small whale was at the door.

"Yes?" he asked. "What do you want?"

"We're looking for a Mr Harry Potter, if it is at all possible," said Arthur. "And a...'Mr Vernon Dursley', I think, for that matter as well."

"One minute," said the whale. He tried to slam the door, but Arthur used his foot to stop the door from closing.

"Dad!" bellowed the whale, whom Arthur remembered was called 'Dudley.' "There are freaks here!"

"Get out of my house!" screamed Vernon. "Petunia will call the Police if you don't leave immediately."

Vernon attempted to run at Arthur, but due to his size, was quite slow.

"All we want to do is retrieve Harry and not draw this out any further," said Arthur, still using a calm voice.

"You can't have him! He hasn't finished his chores!" answered Vernon.

"Is that so? Do most children have to mow the lawn, clean the toilet, scrub the walls, walk on the newspaper, and cook dinner all on the same day?" asked Arthur, taking his wand out. He was starting to talk in a more forceful voice. "You will tell us where Harry is, and we will take him."

Dursley grunted in a mockery of a laugh. "You can't do...that... here. They'll think that it was the Freak, and then we'd be stuck with him for another five years."

The wand was in Dursley's neck as Arthur asked, "Do you really want to test that theory, Muggle?"

His voice was turning into the same type of disdain that people like Malfoy showed Muggles.

"T-t-the f-f-freak is upstairs," said Vernon, nearly wetting himself in fear. The twins went upstairs to release Harry from Durzkaban.

"Now, you say that we won't see the freak...that is I mean to say the Boy, until next summer?" asked Vernon with a hint of glee in his tone, although he was still scared out of his mind that these Freaks, who for some reason actually _liked _The Freak, would do him harm or kill him.

"Unless, of course, you wish to see him sooner," offered Arthur as the Twins brought Harry's things down the stairs. There was a renewed look of fury on Vernon's face as he saw this.

Harry was nearly at the door when Arthur stopped him. Arthur turned to the Dursleys. "You're not going to see your nephew until next summer," he said. "Aren't you going to say goodbye?"

"Oh, no, It's perfectly OK," said Harry.

Uncle Vernon grunted, "Good-bye, then. And see if you and your freakishness can stay somewhere else next summer."

The twins released Hedwig from her cage, and then told her where they were going. She took off, and the twins, Arthur, and Harry piled into the car, which was bigger on the inside. In a shorter time than expected, possibly because Mr Weasley used the 'enhancements' on the car, they were pulling into a dusty lane.

At the end of the lane was a house. The house was almost as odd as the Dr Suess books that had been at school in Primary. It almost looked like it was held together by magic. Knowing the Weasleys, it probably was.

"Welcome to the Burrow, Harry," said Arthur. "It's not much, but it's home."

"I think that it is fantastic." responded Harry.

A/N:

I realise that I use a lot of American terminology like 'Studying' when I think that the proper version is 'revising'. I apologise for that, and will attempt to use the right terminology.

If anyone would like to "Brit-pick" my stories, feel free to send me a message.

Book One stats:

5000th word was in chapter four "their" as in "their new friend"

7500th word was in chapter six "put" as in "When the three put on the glasses..."

10000th word was in chapter seven "did" as in "So did Harry [suspect Quirrell]"

12500th word was in chapter eight "and" as in "and his friends would be over that night"

15000th word was in chapter nine "the" as in "went to the Hospital..."

final count for the revised version of The Bonds of Friendship: Book I is 17,439 words

Book Two:

Chapter 1:

1000th word: 'was' ('their greatest fear was...')

2000th word: 'immediately' ('Pet will call the police...leave immediately')

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	2. The Burrow

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 2: The Burrow

It was very nearly supper-time when Ginny heard the Family car, the Ford Anglia that her father had 'modified' slightly, coming down the road.

When she saw Harry getting out of the car, she ran out of the Kitchen door yelling, "Harry!," nearly forcing him to the ground as she ran into him and hugged him. As she ended the hug, she noticed that the Twins looked amused.

"Don't you dare!" she threatened them. "If you make fun of us and Hermione, I'll give you a good Hexing once we get back to school."

_It feels so good to be around Harry again, _thought Ginny, right as she 'heard' nearly the same thing from Harry.

Ginny looked confused as she said, "Harry, did you say something?"

"No, I didn't say anything," replied Harry. He then whispered in her ear, "I think that our bond is accelerating."

\\\/

"Harry, dear," said Molly as she was putting the finishing touches on supper. "You are much too thin, Harry. Dinner will be in a couple of minutes, so why don't you take your things up to Ron's room."

"Which one is that?" asked Harry.

"I'll show you," said Ginny. "Basically, you go all the way up. It's just below the attic."

Harry started to take his things up the stairs. As he was going up one of the flights of stairs, Percy opened his door and came out.

"Could you keep it down?!" he said. "I'm trying to work here! Hello, Harry."

"Hello, Percy" greeted Harry. "How's your summer going?"

"It is very well, thank-you," said Percy the Prefect. "But could you keep it down, I'm trying to work."

_That was strange,_ thought Ginny. _What's he working on? Certainly he hasn't left his summer work _this _long._

She looked at Harry, and could tell he was thinking the same thing.

\\\/

A couple of more flights of stairs later, and they were at Ron's room. Harry knocked, and Ron called him in.

At first, when Harry went in, he thought that there was something wrong with his vision—more wrong than usual, anyway. The whole room was a bright orange, and as he looked at it, he noticed that it was the same exact shade of orange.

Then Harry noticed that everything in the room was not only orange, but featured the same seven players holding broomsticks. The bedsheets, the walls, the carpets were all orange and had the Cannons players on them.

"Is this your Quidditch team?" asked Harry.

"Yes," replied Ron. "The Chudley Cannons—15th in the league."

It was a testament to how much Ron liked this team if he was willing to boast that they were 15th in the league. While it sounded impressive, there were two things that would naturally dispel this notion: there were only fifteen teams in the league, and the Cannons had a losing streak that dated back to 1969. Before that, they hadn't won since Kennedy won the American Presidential Election. Naturally, they were in _Guinness' Book of Wizard Records_, but for completely the wrong reasons.

"Your mum mentioned that supper is almost ready," said Harry.

Ron got up, passed his bookshelves that had _The Adventures of the Mad Muggle_ comic books on them, and went down the stairs. It was at this point that Harry saw there was a camp bed set up for him.

_It's a visual nightmare in there, isn't it, _thought Ginny. Harry just nodded his head as they descended the stairs.

They had a nice dinner of onion soup and bread. After they finished, Mrs Weasley went into the other room for a minute, and returned with a giant chocolate-frosted cake. The family sang "Happy Birthday" to him (a tradition that started in the Wizard World hundreds of years ago before being exported into the Muggle world by two Squibs. The Squibs, in a rare case of Squibs that were Siblin_g_s, still tried to get rights to the song).

Harry blew out the candles, only because he'd seen Dudley do it before. "I think that this is the first time anyone's ever celebrated my birthday." he said. Percy looked disbelieving, while Harry continued. "Last year, Hagrid rescued me from the Muggles, and we went to Diagon Alley, but we didn't really do anything to _celebrate_ my birthday. Thank you, Mrs Weasley."

At this point Ginny could tell that Harry was holding back tears. So also was her mother, but Molly also had a dark look. For the rest of the night, Ginny could hear her mum muttering about "Dursleys, don't care Azkaban" "want to kill Dursleys" and some language not usually heard from the Matriarch of the family.

Later on that night, Ginny heard her mum tell Harry not to call her Mrs Weasley.

"I know about your bond with Ginny. You can call me 'Molly' or 'mum'." she told him.

\\\/

The next morning, a post owl came addressed to Ginny and Harry. There was a French postmark on it, and it was labelled, "_par hibou_" which Ginny and Harry supposed must mean "by owl."

The address was written in Hermione's neat handwriting.

_Dear Ginny (and Harry, if the Weasleys managed to rescue you successfully),_

_I hope that you are all right. I'm having a great time here in France. I hope that the Muggles didn't give you any problems when you went to retrieve Harry. Otherwise, we can send in my parents—they're dentists (a type of tooth-healer), and must Muggles are afraid of them._

_I finished my school-work weeks ago, and my family will be back in London Wednesday to pick up my books. We should meet in Diagon Alley. Let me know what's happening—either by Post or by Our method._

_Love to you both, and to all of the Weasleys,_

_Hermione Granger._

"Well, that's good," said Molly. "I figure that the letters should be here any day now."

Just as she said that, Ginny saw a speck getting closer. Soon, she could identify it as a barn owl. Then, the bird crashed into the window, and fell to the ground unconscious. Percy went over to retrieve the letters, and gave them to his mum.

"It's your Hogwarts letters," said Mrs Weasley handing them around.

"This lot's not going to come cheap" commented a Twin.

Ginny looked down at her list, and saw that most of the books were written by Gilderoy Lockhart.

\\\/

The next Wednesday, the Weasley family huddled around the fireplace to head to Diagon Alley.

"I hate the Floo!" Harry complained before tossing the Powder into the Fire and yelling, "Diagon Alley!" Ginny followed him a couple seconds later.

Once they got to Diagon Alley, they met up with Hermione, and the children did their shopping until it was time to get their books. As they were approaching the bookshop, there was a large queue. At that point, they noticed the sign.

_Gilderoy Lockhart will be signing copies of his autobiography _Magical Me _today 12:30-16:30_

"Merlin's beard," exclaimed Hermione. "He's written nearly the entire book-list!"

A photographer pushed past Ginny, so she yelled, "You could say sorry" at him. This caused Lockhart to look at the crowd from his podium. It was at this point he noticed Ginny, or more specifically, who was standing next to her.

"Harry Potter?" he asked, as the rude _Daily Prophet _photographer manhandled Harry to where he was standing next to Lockhart.

"When Mr Potter entered this shop today, he was going to purchase my autobiography, _Magical Me, _currently in its 25th printing. He had no idea that besides getting my entire collection of books (free of charge for the Saviour of the World), he was going to get the real _Magical Me_. That's right, witches and wizards! This September, I will be the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Harry wanted to vomit. So did Ginny. It was clear to her that the writer was more interested in publicity. He wasn't like Harry—a quiet Hero.

\\\/

After Harry (quite unwillingly) had his photo taken with Lockhart, Malfoy taunted Ginny and Harry, causing Hermione to step in.

"Are you really letting a Mudblood talk for you?" asked Draco. "I thought the Potters used to be pure-blood, until your father sullied his line with a Muggle. And you, associating with Mudbloods and Weasleys—not a good combination."

"Now, now, Draco" said a man, who walked up to Draco, and put his ornate ornamental cane on the boy's shoulder. Ginny could immediately tell who this man was, as he looked like a larger version of Draco. Her hypothesis was confirmed when her dad stepped next to Ron and said in a very cool voice, "Lucius."

"Arthur" sneered Lucius Malfoy. "I hear that it's a rather busy time at the Ministry. Extra raids. I do hope that they pay you overtime..."

Lucius took a book from a cauldron near Ginny. "Obviously not" he said as he pushed the cauldron over, and started to fight with Arthur. The fight was only ended when Hagrid pried the two men apart.

"You should have ignored him, Arthur," said Hagrid. "They're all rotten to the core, the whole family."

Meanwhile, Molly was beside herself with rage, "Getting into a fight in Diagon Alley? Oh, what Lockhart must think of us now! This is a fine example to set for your children, Arthur!"

One of the Twins spoke up, "Lockhart loved it. He was trying to get the reporter to include it in the story. 'Two Men Brawl over Lockhart Books'."

\\\/

During the days at the Burrow, they could play Quidditch, as long as they didn't fly too high (there was a Muggle town in the vicinity). Her brothers finally gave Ginny the respect she deserved and let her play with them (the fact she had caught the Snitch to win the Quidditch Cup _really _didn't hurt her).

The family had great fun until the last day of August, when they had to start getting ready for school. As she was putting her schoolbooks (most of which Harry had bought) into her bag, she noticed something extra. A diary belonging to a Tom Marvolo Riddle.

A/N:

I realise that I use a lot of American terminology like 'Studying' when I think that the proper version is 'revising'. I apologise for that, and will attempt to use the right terminology.

If anyone would like to "Brit-pick" my stories, feel free to send me a message. Also, if my translation of "by owl" as "_par hibou_" is wrong, please send me a message

I am taking down the word count stats for book one

Book Two:

1000th word: 'was' ('their greatest fear was...') (chap 1)

2000th word: 'immediately' ('Pet will call the police...leave immediately') (chap 1)

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word:

7500th word:

10000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	3. The Platform and the Fraud

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 3—The Platform and the Fraud

_As she was putting her schoolbooks (most of which Harry had bought) into her bag, she noticed something extra. A diary belonging to a Tom Marvolo Riddle._

The funny thing was that there was not anything written in the diary. Ginny put the diary with the rest of her things and resumed packing.

Tomorrow, she would see Hermione for the first time since the Disaster at Diagon. Ginny was also excited that she would be starting her second year at Hogwarts at that the world famous Gilderoy Lockhart would be teaching defence.

Although Hermione was less concerned (and almost seemed a little enamoured by him), Ginny and Harry thought that there was something off about Lockhart.

The night before they left for school, they had a very delicious dinner that included some of her and Harry's favourite things. In the morning, it took a while for the whole family to get up and to get ready to leave.

The car, of course, was magically expanded, so the family, their animals, and trunks all fit easily. Ginny didn't think that her mum or Harry knew quite how many charms were on the vehicle. During the ride, however, her dad was trying to convince mum to allow him to use some of the extra features, such as the Flight Mode, Invisibility Booster (to assist the flight mode), and the traffic avoidance mode.

Molly Weasley vetoed all of them.

It was 10:45 when they finally got to Kings' Cross, meaning that they only had fifteen minutes to catch the _Express._ Due to the threat of the elf, the Weasleys decided to go in as large groups as possible, with Arthur actually Apparating Harry onto the Platform.

\\\/

When Ron tried to get on the Platform, however, he found that the wall was just that—a wall. _That elf must've mistimed the charm! _Ron thought. _I should wait for Mum and Dad at the –wait, I can just take the car!_

\\\/

The Trio managed to find a compartment quickly, where they were soon joined by one of Ginny's childhood friends, and one of the oddest girls she'd ever met, Luna Lovegood, who lived just over the hill from the Weasleys. She (and her dad) had always been a bit strange, but it had really increased after her mum died. Ginny figured it was a coping mechanism.

During the train trip, the Trio managed to have a semi-coherent conversation with Luna, and her thoughts about Hogwarts.

"I'd really love to go to Ravenclaw," she said to them in an airy voice. "I don't think that they'd understand me though—Woozles going through their brains. My dad was a Ravenclaw (and bullied quite a lot), and my mum was a Gryffindor."

Luna paused a minute, staring at the Trio. "You're connected, aren't you?" she asked. At the dumbfounded looks of the trio, she just said, "I see things differently from the rest. But I won't tell. I never do."

\\\/

Soon, they were at Hogwarts. Luna was with the incoming first years, and the Trio were at the Gryffindor table. It was only after the hat did his song that Ginny looked down the table and noticed that her brother was not there. She looked back at the Sorting, and noticed that Snape was not at his place at the High Table.

_Merlin help whichever poor soul is on the receiving end of his wrath,_ thought Ginny. _I wonder why he's not there_

Her thoughts were interrupted as "CREEVEY, COLIN" was made a Gryffindor, and a couple minutes later, "LOVEGOOD, LUNA" unexpectedly also became a Gryffindor. Another couple of minutes, and the Sorting was done, and the feast began.

\\\/

During dinner, the first-year named Colin Creevey talked non-stop about his favourite subjects—the Boy-Who-Lived, his parents, Harry Potter, photography, Harry Potter, Hogwarts, Harry Potter, his brother, and Harry Potter. It was very annoying to hear someone else talk about your boyfriend like that. Luna seemed to find him interesting.

\\\/

After the students were dismissed and went to their Common Rooms, Ginny finally found her brother and heard the story of what happened.

First, Ron had stolen the car to fly it to Hogwarts. Second, he had been seen by Muggles in London (as he'd failed to engage the Invisibility Booster). Thirdly, when he landed, he landed in a very violent tree—a tree known as the Whomping Willow—possibly the only tree in England to hit back. Fourthly, Ron was caught by the caretaker, Mr Filch, as he was trying to sneak into the castle.

This explained the absence of Snape, because the caretaker had immediately taken Ron to see Snape. Snape did his usual bit of threatening, and then fetched Dumbledore and McGonagall who, now that she thought of it, had been missing from part of the feast.

"_Weasley should be expelled, Headmaster," Snape had said. It was almost like a broken record. "Mr Weasley has committed a flagrant violation of the Statute of Secrecy, and an even more egregious violation of the Decree for the Reasonable Use of Underage Sorcery. He should be expelled, arrested, and the rest of his family should go crawl into a hole in the Muggle world, as they like it so much."_

"_Severus, please," said Dumbledore. "I am aware of the laws, having written or modified a good deal of them myself. I am also aware that the vehicle itself was not charmed by Mr Weasley here, instead it was charmed by Arthur Weasley."_

"_So arrest him for the flagrant violation of his own laws against the ownership of charmed objects!" input Snape._

"_You know that I cannot do that, Severus." said Dumbledore. "Mr Weasley, please explain why you did this."_

_Ron explained, and Dumbledore's expression remained the same._

"_I will not expel you today, Mr Weasley," said the Headmaster. "However, you will lose 50 points from Gryffindor, receive a detention, and I _will _be writing home to your family. I must caution you that any further rule-breaking may jeopardise your continued enrolment in this school."_

\\\/

Dumbledore's owl must have made good time, as the next morning during breakfast, the Weasley's owl came flying in, carrying a letter that no student ever wanted to see. It was a Howler—a magical letter that yelled at the recipient. Howlers were distinctly coloured—a dark red.

"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR! YOUR FATHER IS FACING AN ENQUIRY AT WORK AND IT'S ALL _YOUR **FAULT**_! YOU PUT ONE MORE TOE OUT OF LINE, AND YOU WILL BE COMING STRAIGHT HOME, AM I CLEAR?"

The Howler ranted for a couple of more minutes. Right before it finished, it turned to Luna. "Luna, I am so proud that you made it into Gryffindor with Ginny. Your mother (Merlin bless her soul) would have been so proud of you."

Both Luna and Ron wanted to crawl under the table.

\\\/

Their first class of the year was Herbology. Unusually, Professor Sprout was not in her usual place until right before the class started. Ginny noticed that she was walking back from the Whomping Willow with Professor Lockhart. Sprout looked thoroughly disgruntled, especially considering the fact that she was the Head of Hufflepuff House, the people who like everyone and are loyal.

"Hello, there," the blond professor with perfect teeth said. "I was just showing Professor Sprout how to deal with a Whomping Willow. I came across one during my travels once—for details see my collected works."

"Greenhouse Three, everyone," Sprout said in a frustrated voice. As soon as Lockhart was out of hearing range, Ginny could tell that Sprout was muttering something under her breath about Lockhart. It was definitely not language that one would use in front of Molly Weasley.

"Today, we will be re-potting Mandrakes," said the Professor. "Can anyone tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"

\\\/

The next day in classes, Ron was having trouble with his wand. It seems that when he crashed, the Wand had broken. Harry suggested writing home for a new one, but Ron didn't like that idea because he thought, and Ginny agreed, that he would get another Howler.

"It's all your fault" Ron said in a high voice in a poor imitation of his mother.

"Well, you did drive a car to Hogwarts, Ronald. I'd say that was very irresponsible of you," said Hermione.

Ron put Spellotape on his wand to try and stabilise it. It wasn't working as well as he'd hoped.

As they were eating their lunch, Harry queried the Bond to see what class they had next. Almost immediately, an image of a blond haired man with perfect teeth and an obnoxious manner came to mind. It was going to be their first class with Professor Lockhart.

\\\/

When Ginny got to the class, she was completely revolted. The walls of the classroom were completely covered with posters of one man—Gilderoy Lockhart. They were all waving and smiling at the students. _This guy's a bloody egomaniac! _Ginny thought.

Across the bond, she could hear, _Ginny, Language!_

Lockhart went to the front of the room and announced, "Meet your new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, me! Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honorary Member of the Dark Arts Defence League; five-time winner of Witch Weekly's most charming smile award."

The class went downhill from there.

"Now, I'd like to give you a little test to see what you've learned," said the tests, which looked to Ginny like one of Hermione's shorter papers.

_Hey! _Shouted Hermione over the bond indignantly.

\\\/

Later that day, the Trio were in the Library. They hadn't been set any homework yet, but they were researching. Hermione was looking over her Lockhart books and frowning.

"That text was nine pages of small text about Lockhart," said Hermione. "Not Defence Against the Dark Arts, curses, or creatures, but about Lockhart. I just having a feeling that something is off about him—I just can't put my finger on it."

She looked more frustrated than since they were trying to find Flamel the previous year. Perhaps even more.

"Well, I don't think he knows his creatures," said Ginny. "You don't do that to Cornish Pixies. Everyone with an ounce of brains knows that—even Ron knows it."

\\\/

Over the next couple of weeks, Ginny started to write in the Diary. The amazing thing was that it would write back. It introduced itself as 'Tom'.

One evening, Ginny was confused.

_What did I do this evening?_ She thought. She couldn't remember a thing after dinner. She would bring it up to the others at some point in the near future. When she told Tom, though, he didn't seem to be too concerned.

A/N:

I realise that I use a lot of American terminology like 'Studying' when I think that the proper version is 'revising'. I apologise for that, and will attempt to use the right terminology.

If anyone would like to "Brit-pick" my stories, feel free to send me a message.

I am taking down the word count stats for book one

Book Two:

1000th word: 'was' ('their greatest fear was...') (chap 1)

2000th word: 'immediately' ('Pet will call the police...leave immediately') (chap 1)

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word:

10000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	4. The Sponsorship

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 4—The Chamber and the Heir

What did I do this evening? T_hought Ginny. She couldn't remember a thing after dinner. She would bring it up to the others at some point in the near future. When she told Tom, though, he didn't seem to be too concerned._

Fortunately for the classes, Lockhart didn't bring in any more magical animals to class in the next couple of weeks. What they _were_ doing was worse.

In class, they were doing creative impressions of the books. This usually meant that Harry or Ginny had to get up in front of the class and act like idiots to re-enact the stories from Lockhart's books.

Ginny noticed quite quickly that Harry was trying to avoid two people—Colin Creevey, who was an amateur photographer who hero-worshipped Harry and kept following him around like a crazed _paparazzo;_ and Gilderoy Lockhart, who was always trying to give him useless advice.

Lockhart seemed not to have gotten the memo that Harry was more famous than him, this meant that most of the 'advice' was who to become more famous, and how to handle his fame. Ginny was sure that there would be book burnings if Lockhart announced that he was more popular than Harry.

One morning, Ginny was rudely awakened by a localised Cannon-blast charm. When she looked at her clock, she saw that it was 06:00. That annoyed her. Another thing that annoyed her was that she had been having a rather good dream. As she got out of bed, she realised that it was all of the Quidditch girls that had gotten the Cannon-blast. Apparently, Wood had learned the Charm to compensate for the fact he couldn't go up to the Ladies' Dormitories.

When she got to the Common Room, she saw that the rest of the team were reluctantly following Wood.

"We are going to train harder, faster, and smarter this year," said Wood as he led them to the Locker Room. When they got there, Wood took out a large number of boards and started to drone about some new plays he'd come up with.

After a few hours, Wood finished up. As he was ordering them onto the field, one of the twins asked a question. A Very Big Question. "Why couldn't you have told us this when we were awake?"

\\\/

After warm-ups and a small bit of practise, Ginny heard a funny clicking noise. She had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what the noise was, and when she looked, she confirmed her guess. Colin Creevey was in the stands photographing the practise.

"Who is that there, taking pictures of our practise?!" demanded Wood. "He could be a Slytherin spy!"

"The Slytherins don't need a spy, Wood," said Twin A.

"Because they are here in person," said Twin B.

"What are you doing here?" asked Wood. "I booked the pitch on the sign-up sheet in Hooch's office specially!"

"We have a note from our head of house," said the Slytherin captain. Ginny thought his name was Flame or Fire or Flint or something like that. The Captain started reading the note. "_By the power invested in me by the Headmaster of the School, I, Severus Snape, do hereby give the Slytherin team permission to practise on the Quidditch pitch today. This is due to the fact that they need to train their new Seeker. Signed Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin House, Potions Master of Hogwarts, Master of Potions, etc., etc. _We have permission, and you don't. Get a note next time, Scum_"_

"We did everything legal! We signed up in the Office, specially!" Wood repeated before looking around at the Slytherin team. "You have a new Seeker? Who?"

Out from behind Flint stepped the spawn of the nemesis of Ginny's family, and personal nemesis to the Potters and the Weasleys of this generation—Draco Malfoy.

"Aren't you the son of Lucius?" spat Twin A.

"It's funny that you should mention Draco's father," said Flint. "Our Seeker isn't the only new thing that we have on the team."

The Slytherins turned their brooms so that the lettering on each side was visible. _Nimbus 2001 _proclaimed the script.

Sensing that trouble was brewing, Hermione and Ron had come down onto the field.

"I'd say that it outclasses the _2000_s by a good amount, and the _Comet 260 _by a mile," said Draco.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to _buy _their way on," said Hermione.

"No-one asked your opinion, you foul little Mudblood!" shouted Draco. He spat on the ground to emphasise his point that Hermione shouldn't be within half a mile of him. It also emphasised the fact he thought she shouldn't even be learning magic.

"You'll pay for that Malfoy," said Ron, taking out his wand. "Eat slugs!"

It would have been funny if the spell would've worked, but unfortunately, Ron's wand was partially broken, and the spell backfired, hitting Ron, and causing him to vomit slugs.

\\\/

It was at Hagrid's house that they were discussing the situation a little later.

"You need to use your fame for something good," said Hermione. "Do you know how many millions of Galleons a broom company would receive if they had your endorsement? All the Professional teams in Europe would want their brooms."

\\\/

_It's another night that I can't remember what I did, _thought Ginny. _Something odd is happening, and I should tell Tom and see what he thinks. Why do I have chicken blood all over my robes?_

\\\/

Soon it was October. Harry had considered Hermione's suggestion and, as always, found it to be a good one. So, Harry decided to contact all the major broom manufacturers in Britain about a plan to sponsor at least the Gryffindor team (and by extension, a plan that the manufacturers wouldn't sell to the other teams).

A couple of days after Harry sent the letter, a response came in from Comet.

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_We at the Comet Broom Company were delighted to hear from you, as we thought that you were a _Nimbus_ man. We were delighted to hear your revolutionary idea to reform the Quidditch games at Hogwarts School. We would be very happy to sponsor the Gryffindor Quidditch team._

_We hope that you will accept our generous donation of Quidditch equipment and our Brooms for the use of your team. We also would hope that you will use the _Comet Broom _yourself._

_We hope that you will have an excellent Quidditch season, and remember, there's nothing faster than Comet_

_Sincerely,_

_Timothy Gifford, President and CEO of Comet Broom Company, Plc._

"Wow," said Ginny scanning the note. She noticed an enclosed note. "They want to give us Comet 9000s! They're equal to the Nimbus 2001."

Over the next week, Harry received similar letters from Banadl Broom Company, out of Cardiff, Wales, who wanted the school to use the Firebar; and Giolcach Broom Company, out of Dublin, Ireland, Magical United Kingdom, with its Beast Five broom.

After he got those letters, he went to the High Table. "Professor Dumbledore, I've received a few notes in the mail, and I'd like to talk with you, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout. It's in regards to the Quidditch being played at Hogwarts."

"Very well, my boy. Meet us in my Office after breakfast. I enjoy Sherbet Lemons." responded the Headmaster.

\\\/

"What is it that you want to talk to us about?" asked McGonagall.

"I was very surprised when I got called here," said Sprout. Flitwick nodded his head.

"I wanted you here in your Head of House capacity, Professors," said Harry as he passed out the letters. When the Professors were finished reading the letters, they were in shock.

"You're saying that these companies are going to provide brooms for the Quidditch at the school?" asked McGonagall.

"Yes, I felt that it was wrong for Malfoy or any one team member to have an advantage over any other player."

"I really admire your attitude, Potter," said Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff. "Fifty points to Gryffindor for an exceptional sense of fair play."

The professors left. "I did notice, Harry, that none of these were for the Slytherin team?" queried Dumbledore.

"No, sir," said Harry. "Flint implied that Malfoy bought his way onto the team with a generous donation of brooms from Malfoy, Sr. I figured that's enough of a sponsorship for now. Just to be fair, though, I've invited Nimbus to the Press Conference, where the Companies will present their Equipment to the Teams. However, more than one of the companies insisted that a certain professor, who has an Order of Merlin, 3rd class, and was the winner of a smiling competition, be absent."

"I will take care of it," said Dumbledore. "I am pleased that you didn't allow yourself to have any advantage."

\\\/

A week before the first Quidditch match of the year, which as always was Gryffindor v Slytherin, the broom company representatives came to the school. Harry made sure that each of the Reps was a good distance from the others, as there was quite a rivalry between the different Manufacturers.

The Comet Reps got a picture of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and then Harry Potter himself, dressed in their Quidditch Robes, holding their new brooms.

The other companies arranged for their teams to do the same quite quickly.

\\\/

The next morning, there were bold headlines in the Prophet: **New Era for Hogwarts Quidditch: Potter gets Major Companies to Sponsor Teams at Hogwarts **announced page one.

_Hogwarts School, Lisa Kimcorn_

_In a stunning move, the major broom Manufacturers of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Ireland, have agreed to sponsor teams in the Inter-House Quidditch Championship at Hogwarts._

"_It's simple, really," said Potter, and he stood aside his new Comet 9000. "In other parts of the world, and in the Muggle world, a team will sometimes agree to exclusively use one brand of equipment for their teams."_

_The companies agreed. In a joint statement to _the Daily Prophet, _the companies said that this move would, "Remove wealth as a determiner as to who plays Quidditch. It also sets a good example for our Youth, as we hope this move instils a sense of fair play."_

_With this new move, even a family as poor as the Weasleys can fly brooms that are the same quality as the other teams._

_Mr Lucius Malfoy, 54, speaking from his Wiltshire Mansion, said that this is, "a fiendish move by the other teams at Hogwarts to get an unfair advantage over the Slytherins," and that "the Board of Governors will be investigating this obviously illegal act." He further went onto say, "Last year, two first-years were allowed to play for the Gryffindor team, [this] reeks of the same rule-breaking."_

_The _Prophet_ checked this statement by Mr Malfoy and found that, Mr Harry Potter and Ms Ginny Weasley both played on the team as first-years. However, there is no rule that states that a first year student cannot play for the House team._

"_I've always seen the rule as first-years were not allowed to own brooms at Hogwarts," Deputy Headmistress McGonagall said in a statement. "Most first-years barely know how to fly, and it would be an obvious safety hazard if we had our students flying around, untrained."_

_We at the _Prophet_ decided to also investigate Mr Malfoy's other claim, so we brought in Professional Quidditch players Gwenog Jones of the Holyhead Harpies, and Roderick Plumpton of Tutshill Tornadoes. After testing the four brooms that would be in use at Hogwarts, both of our experts agreed that, aside from minor differences in the "Unique Steering Controls and braking systems, there is no significant difference" between the brooms. Jones also stated, "It should make for some exciting games. I'm really looking forward to seeing it."_

_This reporter looks forward to seeing the Hogwarts House Teams in action. The first game of the season is the old rivalry Gryffindor v Slytherin (along with its new component of another major rivalry: Comet v Nimbus), Saturday next at 12:00. It will be broadcast live on your home for Quidditch, Quidditch 94 on your _Wireless _dial._

Ginny thought that the article was well-written for a change. Malfoy's dirty play got turned against him.

\\\/

On Halloween, Harry and Ron went to Nearly-Headless Nick's Death-Day Party. There were ghosts from all corners of Britain present. It wasn't long before he and Ron decided to leave. On their way up to the Common Room or the Kitchen, Harry heard a voice.

When they got to the second floor, a cat was hanging by its tail near an abandoned bathroom that was haunted by a ghost named Myrtle. Neither immediately noticed the writing on the wall.

However, as things tend to happen around Harry, they soon noticed the writing when Malfoy read the writing. _"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware._" said Malfoy's unpleasant voice. Malfoy then decided to put his two Knuts in. "You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

\\\/

The next morning, Ginny woke up, finding herself in the Hospital Wing. Soon after, Harry and Hermione woke up as well.

"What happened?" asked Ginny. "What am I doing here?" groaned Harry.

"You were brought in here for a case of severe Magical Exhaustion, Ms Weasley," replied Pomfrey. "Your friends brought you here, and quickly succumbed to the effects of your Magical Exhaustion, due to the Bond, shortly I confined them to the Hospital Wing. I have let the Headmaster know."

Right as she said that, the Headmaster came strolling through the doors of the Hospital Wing. "Did you have something to tell me, Mr Potter?" he asked.

A/N:

I realise that I use a lot of American terminology like 'Studying' when I think that the proper version is 'revising'. I apologise for that, and will attempt to use the right terminology.

If anyone would like to "Brit-pick" my stories, feel free to send me a message.

There is a Beatles/John Lennon reference in this chapter (para. 5) Also, for anyone familiar with the German editions of Harry Potter, you might find the reporter's name to be amusing (especially in contrast to the other person with that last name's writing style)

Book Two:

1000th word: 'was' ('their greatest fear was...') (chap 1)

2000th word: 'immediately' ('Pet will call the police...leave immediately') (chap 1)

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word: 'gets' ('Potter gets...') Chap 4

10000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	5. The Diary

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 5—The Diary

_The Headmaster came strolling through the doors of the Hospital Wing. "Did you have something to tell me, Mr Potter?" he asked._

"I don't know, Sir," said Harry in response. "Ginny's been acting a bit odd, forgetting what she's been doing, that type of thing."

The Headmaster waved his wand over Ginny. His expression became more and more concerned the longer he scanned.

"Miss Weasley, does the name Tom Marvolo Riddle ring any bells?" he asked. "His magical signature is all over you, which I'd normally say is impossible."

"Why would you say that it's impossible?" asked Hermione.

"Because Tom Marvolo Riddle was defeated by someone in this room on Halloween, 1981," replied the Headmaster. "It pains me to say this, but Tom was a great wizard. He did many terrible things, but he had great power. No, not power. He had Power, with emphasis."

"That's the name on my diary," said Ginny. "It talks back to me."

"Miss Granger, if you'd be so kind as to ascertain the location of this diary, and retrieve it," suggested/ordered the Headmaster. Ginny whispered the location of the diary in Hermione's ear, and Hermione went to retrieve the book.

After she left, the Headmaster said, "I could not allow you to go, Miss Weasley. The corrupting influence has already been allowed to touch you, and you may not have been as cooperative when I wished to take care of it. Also, I couldn't retrieve it, because even though I am the Headmaster, there are still parts of the Castle that I cannot access—namely the girl's dormitories."

He said this with the air of someone trying to inject humour into a tragic situation. Ginny could tell that something was worrying him. In fact, she didn't think that he'd look more grave if someone told him that Voldemort was back.

Minutes later, Hermione returned to the Hospital Wing with the diary and handed it to the Headmaster. Ginny wasn't pleased.

"Headmaster, give that to me," she said getting out of her bed and heading toward the headmaster. "I _need _it!" she screamed as she attempted to strangle the Headmaster. Due to her size, she was woefully unsuccessful at this, and the Headmaster was able to easily shrug it off, even though as he waved his wand, he got more and more concerned.

The headmaster then pointed his wand at Harry, and looked deadly concerned. "Holy Mother of Merlin," he whispered in the tone of one seeing some awesomely awful thing. "Harry, this is out of my hands. I will be back in a couple of experts that are much better able to handle this type of thing."

The look on his face was so grave, that Ginny hardly noticed as she kept trying to wrestle the diary away, the look on the Headmaster's face when he had to admit that there was something he didn't know.

Madam Pomfrey dosed each of the Trio with sleeping potions, actually having to spell the potion directly into Ginny's bloodstream, saying that it would help them to recover quicker. The potion worked within seconds, and Ginny collapsed in the headmaster's arms. He put her in the bed next to Harry's before walking out of the room to call his 'experts'.

\\\/

Ginny woke up a while later, free of the direct influence of the Diary. She noticed that there was a strange man in the room. The man had no discernible features.

"I see that you are awake," the man said. His voice sounded as if it had been disguised, which it probably was. "I am Agent Glow-plug of the Department of Mysteries. I am analysing that which has affected you and Mr Potter here. To be honest, I am surprised that there isn't much more damage."

Glow-plug continued muttering to himself about various things and finally said, "Thankfully, there are a number of rituals that I can do to remove it."

\\\/

A couple of hours later, Ginny woke up again, feeling freer than any time since she'd gotten the diary. When Hermione, who'd been sitting at her bedside, noticed that Ginny was awake, she yelled, "Ginny" and kissed her on the lips.

It was at this point that Ginny noticed that the Unspeakable from the DoM was waiting for Harry to wake up. The noise from Hermione and Ginny, however, was enough to wake Harry up. He immediately recoiled at the sight of the Unspeakable.

"I'm not sure that I like you," he said to the man. "It's like I can't even look at you. Some type of Notice-Me-Not charms or some sort of perception filter."

The Unspeakable chuckled, a strange sound coming from the disguised voice. "There are charms that are built into the robes of all Unspeakables, Mr Potter, that render us unremarkable to anyone who sees us."

No-one bothered to ask how the Unspeakable know Harry's name, as they figured that everyone on this side of the Atlantic knew the Boy-Who-Lived.

"There is a great deal of Dark Magic that resides in that scar," the Unspeakable told Harry, point at the Lightning Scar. "It's quite possibly a remnant of Mr Riddle."

"Forgive me if I've missed something," said Harry. "But who is this 'Mr Riddle'?"

The Unspeakable took out his wand and wrote the letters "TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE" in fiery text. He then waved his wands, and the letters rearranged themselves, to become I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

There were gasps of shock from nearly everyone in the room, save the Headmaster.

"Tom was Voldemort?" asked Ginny.

"Yes, unfortunately, he has managed to hoodwink much older and more experienced wizards and witches before, Miss Weasley," said the Headmaster, who realised that it was the revelation and not the name that caused them to gasp. "Mr Potter has trained you well."

"As you've said many times sir, 'Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself'." said Harry.

The Unspeakable turned to Harry. "There is something called a Horcrux in your scar. There was another in that diary that possessed your Girlfriend. This...um...blemish can be cleansed from you in one of two ways. The first would require at the minimum a week in the DoM, but it would cause less pain. The second supposedly causes excruciating pain, but the actual procedure would be done in about an hour. You'd also be out cold for a minimum of Three days, but I'd release you to Pomfrey here. From what I've heard, the pain is worse than the most powerful Cruciatus curse. What is your decision?"

"I'll take the pain," said Harry. "I've experienced enough of it in my life time. I don't know that 'Cruciatus' that you spoke of, but I can handle pain. For Morgana's sake, I lived with Muggles whose favourite hobby was to hit me with things. I once had my bones in my arm healed the Muggle way."

\\\/

That Friday, which would have ordinarily been the day before the opening Quidditch match, The Trio found themselves deep in the Department of Mysteries. As they were walking in, the Unspeakable was giving them some of the security precautions.

"There are automated memory filters in the ceiling. Any unauthorised personnel get mind-wiped of all unnecessary information about this place." he told them.

Harry had been separated from the others, and was led to a room where he'd be prepared for the procedure. Ginny and Hermione would be watching from the Observation Deck. They could see and hear everything that happened in the Ritual Room, as long as it wasn't screaming—which was automatically filtered.

Hermione would have loved to ask how they did that, if they hadn't been there for such a serious situation.

The ritual started. For the first while, the Unspeakables had been chanting in Ancient Greek and/or Hebrew. About a half-hour in was the first sign of anything happening. They switched to Latin, and Hermione could tell that it was some sort of exorcism chant. That is when Harry started thrashing about on the table. His mouth was completely open in a scream silent to her.

The ritual continued. About ten minutes of intense pain later, a black tar-like substance flowed from Harry's scar, and one of the Unspeakables caught it before it could touch anyone else. A yellow glow surrounded Harry and he fell unconscious.

"The ritual has succeeded, we think," said Glow-plug. "We'll bring your boyfriend up in a minute, and port you back to that school of yours."

The Unspeakables somehow managed to create a Portkey that punched through all of the Wards at Hogwarts, and deposited them in the Hospital Wing. It was quite clear that Harry's condition was not good.

On Saturday, Ginny took the early shift, and Hermione took the late shift, both sleeping within a bed of Harry. Sometimes Ginny would even use her favourite pillow—Harry's chest.

On Sunday, gifts started to pour in from all corners of the school. Again, Malfoy and the Slytherin Quidditch team sent, "Die Soon, Mudblood-lover," cards to Harry (promptly receiving a week of detention each that Snape didn't even dispute.

Ron came in on Sunday afternoon, and started talking to Harry's body, still alive, but not awake.

"Hey, they postponed the game for you. It was Ravenclaw v Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuff got trounced. Their keeper let in 50 goals before Diggory was able to end it. Final score was 500-150."

"Ron, what the bloody hell are you doing here?" asked a voice, which prompted twin calls of "Harry, language!"

There was a pause for a moment when the people who said that realised what they'd said. "Harry! You're awake. You weren't meant to be awake for another day!"

"The Unspeakables forgot one thing, ladies and Ron," said Harry.

"What?!" they all asked.

"I'm Harry Potter, mate!"

\\\/

Mid-November, the Gryffindors played in the second game of the Quidditch Season—their first against the evil Slytherins. Ginny was sitting up in the stands with Ron and Hermione, and Lee Jordan, a friend of the Twins, was in the commentary booth. The Gryffindors would be playing in Red and Gold, while the Slytherins were using a Green and Silver uniform.

"Please welcome to the Field, Sponsored by Comet Brooms, and flying Comet Nine-Thousands, please welcome the Gryffindor team! In Goal, your Captain, Oliver Wood! On Beaters, the Human Bludgers themselves, Fred and George Weasley! Chasers Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet! And at Seeker, Harry Potter!" called Lee Jordan.

"And the opposition," booing resounded across the stadium, "Sponsored by Nimbus Brooms and Lucius Malfoy, Flying Nimbus 2001s, the Slytherins. In Goal, Miles Bletchley. Beaters Peregrine Derrick and Lucian Bole. Chasers, Captain Marcus Flint, Graham Montague, and Chris Warrington. At Seeker, Draco Malfoy."

At the last name, the boos in the stadium doubled. Everyone in the Stadium could hear the difference in how Jordan called the names. The Gryffindors he was excited about. With the Slytherins, he was just doing his job.

Wood and Flint were at the Centre Circle for the opening handshake. As always, both players tried to break the other's hand. Hooch gave her usual lecture about how she wanted a clean game, Wood and Flint flew to their places on the field, and Hooch threw the balls into the air, and the game began.

The game itself was brutal as always. The Slytherins were doing their hardest to interfere with the Gryffindors in both legal and illegal fashion. Lee kept giving the crowd his opinion of the various fouls, and even McGonagall was fuming at one point.

Something odd happened: one of the Bludgers seemed to be fixated on Harry. He was using every available move to avoid the Bludger, and Slytherin scored five more times, as the other Bludger kept hitting the Gryffindor chasers.

"Are you training for the Ballet, Potter?" taunted Malfoy.

It was right then that Harry saw the Snitch. It was about ten feet off the ground. He took the Comet into a dive and caught the Snitch. As he was pulling back up from the dive, he heard a satisfying crunch from behind him, as Malfoy ploughed into the pitch.

Unfortunately, Harry was paying too much attention to the Snitch and Malfoy, and a Bludger came and hit his arm, breaking it. To make matters worse, Lockhart came running over.

"No need to worry, I can fix it," said the idiot professor.

"I'd rather go to the Nurse," said Harry.

"Nonsense," said Lockhart. "You don't know what you are saying." He performed a charm on Harry's arm.

It was one of the most disgusting things that Ginny had ever seen.

\\\/

Ginny was so worried about Harry that night. She knew what Skele-Gro tasted like, having broken her arm when she was six.

When Harry finally got out of the Hospital Wing, he told Ginny about the elf that visited him again. Fortunately, Harry was able to worm some information about the culprit before telling the elf that the Diary had been taken care of. The elf said that his master had given Ginny the diary.

While Harry was in Hospital, Ginny and Hermione had a conversation about Lockhart.

"Lockhart really is a fraud, isn't he," said Hermione.

"Yep," said Ginny. "According to some of his books, he's supposed to be in two places at once."

A/N:

I realise that I use a lot of American terminology like 'Studying' when I think that the proper version is 'revising'. I apologise for that, and will attempt to use the right terminology.

If anyone would like to "Brit-pick" my stories, feel free to send me a message.

The John Lennon reference was when Ginny was talking about how there would be book burnings if Lockhart said he was more popular than Harry. There were record burnings when Lennon said that The Beatles were 'as popular as Jesus now' or something to that effect

Book Two:

1000th word: 'was' ('their greatest fear was...') (chap 1)

2000th word: 'immediately' ('Pet will call the police...leave immediately') (chap 1)

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word: 'gets' ('Potter gets...') Chap 4

10000th word: 'he' (' The Gryffindors he was excited about') Chap 5

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

at 27,846 words right now

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	6. The Duelling Club

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 6—The Duelling Club

"_Lockhart really is a fraud, isn't he," said Hermione._

"_Yep," said Ginny. "According to some of his books, he's supposed to be in two places at once."_

Once Harry got back from the Hospital wing after Lockhart's last mess-up, the Trio (and actually Ron, as well) started to think.

"How can we convince the Headmaster that Lockhart is a fraud?" asked Ginny.

"We need to something, and something soon." said Harry. "That man is a menace."

"It's too bad that we don't still have the library," said Ginny, a sign that she'd overcome the effects of her brief Possession. "Lockhart might would actually be competent if Tom was possessing him."

"What we need to do is make him look completely incompetent," added Hermione. At the looks of the others, she amended, "More incompetent than usual, I mean."

"How in Merlin's name are we going to do that?" asked Ron.

\\\/

A couple of days later, the Trio found out what could make Lockhart look even more incompetent than usual; a sign had been posted to the Gryffindor message board.

"A Duelling Club," said Ginny. Harry continued reading the poster. By the time he was done reading it, he and Hermione were nearly jumping for joy.

"What?" asked Ginny. Harry and Hermione both pointed at a line on the poster that had the sponsors.

"Lockhart, Flitwick, and Snape! Oh, this is going to be good." said the girls.

"I'd pay money to see Lockhart get his ass kicked," said Ginny.

"Ginny, language!" responded Harry and Hermione.

Harry then got a look on his face. It was a face that McGonagall had seen many times on James. "You know, maybe that's not such a bad idea," he said with a grin on his face.

"What's not a bad idea?" asked Hermione worriedly.

\\\/

Outside of the room where the Duelling Club was going to be held, Harry stood with a box of money. "Place your bets here! I'll give you excellent odds on Flitwick beating both Snape and Lockhart. Good odds on Snape beating Lockhart! Place your bets!"

\\\/

On the night of the Duelling Club meeting, the Trio went down to the Defence Classroom, which had been magically expanded with all of the desks vanished. Lockhart was standing at the front of the room, along with Snape and Flitwick. Snape looked dour, and Flitwick looked excited.

"I heard he was Duelling Champion back from 1945-1950" said Hermione.

"Can you all hear me?" asked the annoying voice of the Defence Against the Dark Arts 'Professor' Gilderoy Lockhart. "Can you all see me? We are hear to teach you youngsters some of the basics of Duelling. For details of my previous duels, see my collected works."

"To begin tonight," said Flitwick in his squeaky voice. "We will have a demonstration between two uh...'experienced' duellers, myself and Mr Lockhart, after which, the winner will duel with Professor Snape."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny could see Professors McGonagall, Dumbledore, Sinestra, and Sprout watching. McGonagall and some of the other teachers looked as if they were really hoping that Lockhart would make a fool of himself, or Flitwick would seriously injure him, or preferably, both.

She hoped that Lockhart did something completely stupid. Ginny was right. The Flitwick v Lockhart duel was over in mere moments. Despite being over 80 years old, Flitwick was still a fast dueller, and managed to disarm Lockhart in five seconds flat. The duel with between Snape and Flitwick was much better from Ginny's point of view.

Snape and Flitwick were circling each other, like predators trying to size up their rival. Every so often, they would throw a spell at each other (non-verbally, Ginny noticed). They both moved to avoid the curses. Then, all of a sudden, the curses started to fly. Flitwick was jumping all over the place, cursing Snape, and Snape was avoiding almost all of the curses.

At the end of the fight, Flitwick managed to hit Severus with a Stunner at _his _eye level. Unfortunately for Snape, Flitwick's eye level was at a place that caused every male in the room to groan in imagined pain as Snape crumpled to the floor.

The cheering for Flitwick was outstanding. After a minute, Snape got up, shook Flitwick's hand for a good duel, and went to see Madam Pomfrey. He was moaning the whole way.

\\\/

McGonagall eventually had to put her foot down with Wood, who'd been trying to book every available practise time for the Gryffindors, much to the displeasure of the other Houses. She'd been forced to implement a strict training schedule for the teams, with no team getting a single minute more of scheduled practise time.

The upcoming Quidditch game was against Hufflepuff, who were flying the Welsh brooms. Hufflepuff had a Seeker by the name of Cedric Diggory, who was rumoured to be the next year's Captain for the Hufflepuffs.

If Gryffindor won, they'd have a clear lead in the race for the Championship. If they lost, then it would depend on the other game to determine the interim standings.

It was excellent Quidditch weather for the game. Ginny, Ron and Hermione were in the stands, with their wands at the ready, in case Lockhart (or someone else, like Snape, added Ron) tried something during the match.

The Gryffindors, who had on red jerseys with gold trim, and the Hufflepuffs, wearing Canary Yellow jerseys with black trim, both flew off to a quick start. Within a couple of minutes, the score was tied at 60 apiece.

"Diggory is actually a decent Seeker," Ginny told her brother and Hermione. "Unfortunately for him, Harry's not falling for his tricks."

It was a hard-fought match, but definitely cleaner than the Slytherin match. Naturally, since it was the Hufflepuffs, there was much more of a sense of fair-play. Ginny saw the Snitch by one of the goal-posts as Hufflepuff went up 120-100.

Ginny saw that Harry saw it, too. Diggory was a few metres behind Harry as they raced towards the Snitch. Harry's broom had just enough of an acceleration boost to get him to the Snitch half a second before Diggory.

The two Seekers shook hands, in recognition of a good game, and went to their respective dressing rooms.

\\\/

Unfortunately, by the time Christmas rolled around, Lockhart was still the Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. The Trio were still coming up with ideas to get him kicked out, but most were either too dangerous (especially with Lockhart around), too expensive, too illegal, or all three.

They did have one idea, though, they just didn't know how to execute it.

The idea was to get a Boggart and put it in Lockhart's quarters. They knew that the password would likely have the word "Lockhart" in it.

Unfortunately, there were two problems with the idea. First, the idea would be a lot more effective with multiple Boggarts, and second, they had no clue as to how to find one.

\\\/

As always, on Christmas Day, Ginny woke up to find quite a pile of presents on her bed. She got candy from Harry and Ron, a book (_Electricity and How Muggles Use It, _by Sierra Bates, a famous American Muggle-born), a jumper and fudge from her mum and dad, and various pranking items from the Twins.

She also got a sprig of Holly from Luna, because it, "repels Nargles."

If the Twins weren't careful, she'd end up using the pranking supplies on them. Naturally, she'd prefer to use them on Malfoy, but if someone else made her angry in just the right way, they'd be getting Fanged Frisbees and Dungbombs.

\\\/

After she was done with breakfast, she and the twins went down to the grounds to have their annual Snowball fight, which lasted until the early afternoon, leaving them just enough time to dry themselves for the afternoon Christmas feast.

During the feast, Malfoy kept making snide remarks about the Jumpers. Everyone ignored him. The next morning, Malfoy practically shoved _The Daily Prophet _under Ginny's nose. "Look at this!" he said gleefully. "They didn't even get your brother's name right!"

_**Inquiry at the Ministry of Magic**_

_Arthur Weasley, head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, was fined fifty (50) galleons today for previous possession of a bewitched Muggle artefact called a 'car' (a type of horseless carriage that Muggles use to get places), and also for bewitching aforementioned 'car'._

_Regular readers may remember that back in September, a story broke of a flying 'car' called a 'Ford Anglia' that Mystified Muggles in London. We at the _Prophet_ can exclusively reveal that the vehicle in question during that incident was driven by Richard Weasley, 12, of Gryffindor House._

_Readers may also recall that the vehicle crashed on the grounds of Hogwarts, possibly after breaching the Wards. Lucius Malfoy, an outstanding member of the community, and member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, spoke to us from his Wiltshire mansion._

"_This man is flaunting the laws that he helped to create," Malfoy said. "This ridiculous Muggle protection act should be scrapped immediately."_

_Weasley had this to say. "I'd take anything that Malfoy tells you with a grain of salt," he said. "My family and his family have been at each others' throats since Hogwarts was founded. We need more magical blood: this must come from Half-Bloods and Muggle-borns. The War with [name omitted, so as not to offend our audience] and the War with Grindlewald has significantly reduced our population. There are more Squibs coming from the pure-blood breeding."_

_For the connections between the authors of the study Weasley is citing, and subversive Goblin groups, turn to page 9._

_\\\_/

The next day, there was another article in the paper.

**A Defence of Arthur Weasley**

_**Harry Potter, Gryffindor**_

_Dear Editor,_

_I agree with Mr Weasley that the Muggle-borns and Half-Bloods are the future of our society, as long as they are properly introduced to Our traditions. As I entered Hogwarts last year, I had no idea of some of the Traditions of Our people. I propose that a course should be taught for all Muggle-raised Magicals, called "Pure-blood studies", a counterpart to the course for the Wizard-raised ("Muggle Studies")._

_You may call me biased to write this letter in defence of Mr Weasley, since his daughter Ginevra, and his son, Ronald (which this paper got wrong yesterday) are two of my best friends. My defence consists of the following facts._

_Mr Weasley, although he charmed the vehicle, was not seriously intending to use the extra features_

_Mr Weasley's son, Ronald, stole the vehicle, and improperly piloted it to the school_

_Mr Weasley's son, Ronald, stole the vehicle in what he thought was an emergency situation_

_According to the laws that I have looked up, it was only illegal to have the vehicle once the vehicle was used contrary to its original purpose. _

_That is to say, as soon as R. Weasley stole the vehicle, it became illegal. I sincerely hope that the Wizarding World not look at Mr Weasley poorly. _

_R Weasley stole the vehicle when the Platform closed on him, five minutes before the _Express _left. I think that this should at least partially mitigate his crimes, and the fact that the Platform sealed itself early should be investigated._

_Muggles need to be protected against all those who wish them harm._

_I have looked at the numbers, and the number of Wizard children (either pure-blood, half-blood, or Muggle-born) has been decreasing over the last century. Whether that is due to [name omitted] and his Death Eaters causing the destruction of not only Muggle lives, but the lives of those who opposed Him [Potter originally stated a certain name that we will not print] or whether it is due to improper breeding._

_The Muggles determined years ago that marrying one's cousin was a bad idea. I hope that the Wizard world comes to that conclusion soon._

\\\/

"That was a very well written letter, Harry," said Hermione the day she got back from spending time with her parents. "You hit on a number of good points."

The next day, in their first class after the break, the Gryffindors were in DADA with the Fraud when Lockhart shouted, "_Legilimens!" _at Harry, and Harry started to convulse in pain.

A/N:

I realise that I use a lot of American terminology like 'Studying' when I think that the proper version is 'revising'. I apologise for that, and will attempt to use the right terminology.

Even if it's not politically correct, I think of Flitwick fighting like Yoda (in SW: Episode II). Yoda is some type of dwarf-alien, and Flitwick is half-Goblin

If anyone would like to "Brit-pick" my stories, feel free to send me a message.

Gryffindors get Comet 9000s (England)

Hufflepuff get Banadl Firebars (Cardiff, Wales, Magical UK)

Ravenclaw get Beast Fives (Dublin, Ireland, Magical UK)

Slytherins get Nimbus 2001s

Book Two:

1000th word: 'was' ('their greatest fear was...') (chap 1)

2000th word: 'immediately' ('Pet will call the police...leave immediately') (chap 1)

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word: 'gets' ('Potter gets...') Chap 4

10000th word: 'he' (' The Gryffindors he was excited about') Chap 5

12500th word:

15000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

30000th word (Bk II, Chap 7):

at 29882 words right now

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	7. The Attack

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 7—The Arrest _or _The Fall

_The next day, in their first class after the break, the Gryffindors were in DADA with the Fraud when Lockhart shouted, "_Legilimens_!" at Harry, and Harry started to convulse in pain._

"Hermione, get the Headmaster," shouted Ginny. "I'll go get Madam Pomfrey! Ron get McGonagall!"

The three went off running.

**Ron **

Ron thought, "Where would McGonagall be?" and came up with, her classroom, her office or the staffroom. Ron thought that the office was the closest, so he took off running, and less than a minute later was banging on her door.

"Who is it?" answered the distinguished voice of Professor McGonagall.

"It's Ron Weasley. You've got to come quick. Lockhart has attacked Harry."

"Where are they?" asked McGonagall.

"They are in the Defence Classroom," responded Ron. "Lockhart shouted something like '_Legilimens'_ at Harry in the middle of class, and Harry seems to be in pain. My sister is getting Madam Pomfrey, and Hermione is getting the Headmaster."

They arrived back at the classroom at the same moment that a nurse and a headmaster arrived, followed by two students.

**Hermione **

_I wished I were in better shape,_ thought Hermione as she rushed towards Professor Dumbledore's office. _Or learned that clever variation of the Patronus that I've heard Dumbledore uses sometimes._

She was rather out of breath when she got to the Headmaster's Office a couple minutes later. She shouted, "Sherbet Lemon" at the Gargoyle (knowing that to be the password), it moved aside, and she ran up the stairs.

She was about to knock when the door swung open to, "Come in, Miss Granger. Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Sir, there's [gasp] a problem [gasp] with Professor Lockhart in the Defence Classroom," she responded. "I think he did something to Harry."

Dumbledore got up from his desk faster than anyone his age should be able to. He took off down the stairs mumbling, "Holy Mother of Merlin. What's the fool done this time?"

**Ginny**

Ginny was also running up the stairs, except she was running in the opposite direction—towards the Hospital Wing.

"Mme. Pomfrey!" she shouted as she burst through the doors.

"Yes, what is it?"

"It's Harry, ma'am. Lockhart's attacked him in the Defence classroom."

The nurse got her medical bag ready, and then took out a quill. "One of the benefits of being me or the Headmaster," she said as she touched her wand to the Quill and whispered, "_Portus"_ "is that we can make a Portkey for anywhere in the school. Grab on."

Ginny grabbed the quill and felt the usual sensation of a Portkey. It was a horrible spinning sensation that she hated. She rather preferred brooms or Floo. The Portkey put them down in a corridor next to the Defence Classroom.

They could hear Harry screaming now. As the Professors blasted the doors open, they realised that the students had gone to the sides of the classroom to a) get out of the way and b) perhaps get an idea of how to attack one of the supposed most prominent experts of Defence in the world.

Lockhart was in the process of casting another charm when the Professors came though where the door had been. "Obliv—ah!" he yelled.

The first part, Ginny realised was the Memory Charm. The 'ah' was right as he noticed that two Stunners were about to hit his chest. In a move of a lousy DADA 'expert' he'd forgotten to be aware of his surroundings, completely missing when the door was blown off and the professors stormed in. Pomfrey ran over to Harry, who'd collapsed.

"I'd say that medically, he's fine," said the nurse. "Although I would like to keep him overnight just to be sure."

She moved over to Lockhart.

"Unfortunately, I'd say the same about him. He looks to be in good condition; he's in good physical shape, so two Stunners shouldn't hurt him _too_ much."

"Minerva," growled Dumbledore. It didn't sound like him at all. It sounded almost like an animal. "Get the Aurors here immediately."

McGonagall flew to the Floo, knowing that her boss was quite angry right now. Ginny had never seen anyone quite this angry. She didn't even think that her Dad was that angry after the "Unbreakable Charm" incident with Ron and the Twins.

"Department of Magical Law Enforcement," called Minerva into the flames.

"Please state the nature of your emergency," said the voice on the other end of the call.

\\\/

Within minutes, Aurors were streaming through the Floo. Eventually, even the Director herself, Madam Bones, came through. She looked at a report from an Auror, and then started dictating to her secretary.

"At approximately 1045 local time, Suspect, Mr Gilderoy Lockhart, allegedly attacked Mr Potter with the Mind-reading Charm, and approximately five minutes later attempted a memory charm on the victim, a Mr Harry James Potter, of Surrey. At this point, Professors Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall were able to prevent the casting of the aforementioned Memory Charm, and with the assistance of nurse Madam Pomfrey took the Suspect into custody. At approximately 1055 local time, Auror Headquarters received an Emergency Call from Hogwarts from the Aforementioned Professor McGonagall. The explanation was the same at that time.

Aurors arrived at approximately 1100 local time to find Suspect stunned or otherwise unconscious at the front of his classroom, and victim stunned or otherwise unconscious, receiving Medical Attention from aforementioned Mme. Pomfrey. End Disposition."

The officer stopped writing, and Bones said, "Take him to a Holding Cell, and slap those new cuffs on him. We don't want him getting away."

An officer put the handcuffs on Lockhart and shoved him into the fireplace. The two disappeared back to the Ministry.

"I'm going to need testimony from as many students as possible at the trial," stated Bones. "If I play my cards right, it'll start soon."

\\\/

The next morning, when Ginny got to breakfast, the _Daily Prophet _had already arrived. The front page of the paper had a large picture of Lockhart being perp-walked around Auror headquarters with the headline: **Hogwarts Professor attacks Boy-Who-Lived!**

_**Lisa Kimcorn at Hogwarts School**_

_In a stunning chain of events, the _Daily Prophet _has learned that Gilderoy Lockhart, 28, and until yesterday the Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, attacked Mr Harry Potter,12, of Surrey, yesterday in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom at the aforementioned school. Mr Potter, of course, is known better as The-Boy-Who-Lived._

_Aurors were called and the Suspect was subdued. According to sources who wish to remain anonymous, Mr Potter suffered significant mental trauma from the ordeal, but suffered no lasting injuries. He did sustain a number of bumps and bruises. (For more information about possible medical issues, see p. 10; for a more in-depth detail of Mr Potter, see p. 12)_

"_His books cost 20 Galleons," said one student at Hogwarts. "This man was clearly a fraud, and only taught about himself and not about Defence. I have learned nothing useful in his class."_

_Another student, on the condition that we do not provide the student's name, was heard saying, "I don't know how I will pass my OWLs with that fraud as my teacher. I guess that I'll have to go to the library and research." Incidentally, this student was from Ravenclaw._

_A source from inside the Auror Office revealed that they have "Veritaserum pouring out his pores." and that Mr Potter wasn't the first person he'd attacked. According to our source, the famous author has done this multiple times so that he could write his books._

"_We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation," said an Auror representative. "Mr Lockhart has not retained counsel, and will have a trial on Thursday, likely in Courtroom 10."_

_According to sources within the Ministry, Lockhart will face harsh punishment if convicted. "I think that he will be stripped of his _Order of Merlin, 3rd Class,_" said Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, speaking from his office. "I've heard that the Dark Arts Defence League has already revoked his membership in their organisation. Naturally, since he pulls in about 10 thousand a month from sales of his books, he will be heavily fined, likely to the tune of at minimum one million Galleons. This will allow the Ministry to continue to lead Our World in peace and prosperity. Obviously, the use of the Memory Charm against a Head or Heir is at least 20 years in Azkaban in a high security wing, so Lockhart might end up facing the rest of his life in prison, depending on the number of victims."_

_A concerned parent said this, "I think that Professor Dumbledore needs to be investigated for his hiring skills. Last year, a teacher attempted to steal a highly valuable magical artefact. A ghost teaches History of Magic, and has for the past 27 years. I think that Professor Snape is an excellent teacher and the other teachers should follow his example."_

_The _Prophet _will certainly investigate rumours of Dumbledore's senility. For a look at Dumbledore's links to Muggle-born terrorist groups, see page 23. For a discussion, see page 25. For a look at the charges against Lockhart, see page 29. For previous charges (which were proven to be false) against Messrs Malfoy and Snape, see page 31._

"Ha!" said Draco Malfoy from the Slytherin table. "Everyone knows that my father was under the Imperious Curse and that's why he was let off of the charges! This Kimcorn must be a Mudblood."

"Mr Malfoy," called McGonagall. "Fifty points from Slytherin and a detention for bad language."

Ginny knew that Harry did not like the 'M'-word (any respectable Magical ought to, thought Ginny), and she could feel his magic starting to flair up, which would have been bad news for both Malfoy and Harry.

When they got to Potions, Snape immediately said, "Sixty points each from Gryffindor for being early, Potter, Weasley, Weasley, and Granger."

_That vindictive bastard, _thought Ginny.

A/N:

Book Two:

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word: 'gets' ('Potter gets...') Chap 4

10000th word: 'he' (' The Gryffindors he was excited about') Chap 5

15000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

30000th word (Bk II, Chap 7):

at 29882 words right now

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	8. The Trial

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 8—The Trial and the Fugitive

The school was all abuzz about the news of Lockhart getting arrested. Local scuttlebutt in the school said that the Ministry would provide an Auror for the time being. The scuttlebutt further stated that the Auror would be Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Both rumours ended up being true. Shacklebolt was a tall black man with a deep voice that had a reassuring sound to it. He was bald and broad-shouldered. He'd recently been injured on the job, and had originally be given desk duties. He almost quite literally jumped at having the opportunity to teach at Hogwarts instead of sitting behind a desk doing paperwork and reports.

There was a competent Defence teacher for the first time in Ginny's Hogwarts career. Quirrell, of course, had stuttered and had done mostly theory, and Lockhart was an egotist.

"I only have a couple of weeks to get you lot to where you should be," he said in his Caribbean-British accent. "My disability is up at the end of the school year, and that's when I return to active duty, whether I like it or not. You lot, I don't have as much to do with, as it's not your OWL or NEWT years, but still, there have been two Professors for this class that would've never passed the Academy Entrance Exam, let alone become an Auror."

Taking a stack of books from underneath his desk, he waved his wand, and a copy of the books flew to each student. "I'm assuming that Lockhart will not be rejoining us, therefore, at extreme cost to the ministry, it bought new books for the class." he said.

Ginny took a look at the book. It was entitled _Basic Defensive Theory or How Not to Get Yourself Killed, a Defensive Primer for Second Year Students, _by Alastor Moody (Auror, retired), edited by Amelia Bones (Head of the DMLE).

Ginny had heard the name "Moody" before in connection with someone named "Mad-Eye". By the picture on the back page of the book, which showed a man resisting having his photograph taken, she could tell instantly that it was the same man. There were scars on his face, and the man had a magical eyeball.

From conversations with her dad, Ginny knew that Moody was considered to be one of the best Aurors in all Britain. Unfortunately, this caused him to become rather paranoid in the last 10-15 years, and had been forcibly retired from the Force.

_It was a good thing that Moody himself was not teaching the class, _thought Ginny.

\\\/

As she was walking in the halls the next day, she saw her brothers doing something. They were holding an old piece of parchment in their hands, and tried to hide it when they saw Ginny. Ginny was able to look at the parchment before they could clear it.

"That's a map of Hogwarts," she said, as her brothers covered her mouth and dragged her to a more secluded spot. "That's a map of Hogwarts," she repeated.

"Shows everyone, everywhere," said the twins. "Every minute of every day."

"If this is a live map, then why does it show someone called 'Peter Pettigrew' in the Second Years' Dormitory in Gryffindor Tower?" asked Ginny. "Everyone knows that Sirius Black killed him after betraying the Potters."

"That's Ron's bed," said Twin A.

"How did you know that?" asked Ginny.

"Because that's the bed he always sits on," said Twin B. "We shudder to think what he actually does on the bed."

"Let's see what happens over the next couple of days," suggested Ginny. "Then, we go to Dumbledore."

\\\/

Thursday was the day of the trial of Gilderoy Lockhart. The second-year students that had been present in the class that day received a Portkey from the Ministry (a big long rope that everybody was able to grab hold of).

At the Ministry, they were led to the security desk, where they had their wands checked, and then were escorted to Courtroom 10, where the trial was being held. Witnesses were kept in a sound-proofed room on the side of the courtroom, impervious to all spell fire, and most other damage. The room was set up so that the Witnesses could hear the testimony, but any comments made by the Witnesses not testifying would not be heard.

Dumbledore, Fudge and Bones walked to their places on the Wizengamot. Everyone stood as Dumbledore walked to his seat. "Please be seated. We are here to hear accusations against Mr Gilderoy Lockhart, no known current mailing address. The Interrogators for the Prosecution are Mr Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock; Mr Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic of Great Britain and Ireland and all Her Territories; and Madam Amelia Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The Court scribe is the Senior Under-secretary to the Minister for Magic, Ms Dolores Umbridge." said Dumbledore. "Mr Gilderoy Lockhart is the defence. Mr Lockhart, have you retained counsel?"

"I shall be acting in my own defence," said Lockhart in a smug voice. "For I am Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Arts Defence League, and Five-time winner of _Witch Weekly's _Most Charming Smile Award."

"I would advise you against this action, Mr Lockhart," said Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic. Fudge knew that thousands upon thousands of galleons were generated in Tax Revenue from the sale of his books. It also happened that some of that money made its way into Fudge's pockets. "Are you quite sure that you understand the consequences of acting as your own legal counsel?"

"Of course I do," said Lockhart. "After all, I'm..."

Lockhart's litany of honours was cut off by Dumbledore. "You have been charged with Assault, Mind Rape, Attempted Obliviation, Forgery, Fraud, use of various illegal hexes and curses, Aggravated Assault, 10 counts of Mind-Rape for your previous victims, 10 counts of Assault once again for your previous victims and Five counts of Unauthorised Obliviation. How does the Defendant plead?"

"I plead not guilty, due to the Imperious Curse," said Lockhart.

Malfoy and a number of other people on the Wizengamot looked furious at having Lockhart use the _Imperious _Defence. They were even more outraged when they heard the next thing out of Dumbledore's mouth.

"Last year, with a two-thirds quorum, this body passed the **Imperious Act, 1991**, which states that any defendant who pleads the _Imperious _curse, must be subject to Veritaserum."

The Chief Potioneer of the Wizengamot administered the drug.

"Please state for the record your name and occupation," ordered Dumbledore to the drugged man.

"I am Gilderoy Lockhart, I am an Order of Merlin recipient, an honorary member of the Dark Arts Defence League, and Five-time winner of _Witch Weekly's _Most Charming Smile Award, Currently, I work as Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts."

"Did you do any of the things that you claim to have done in your books?"

"Of course not. No one would have bought any of my books if they thought I hadn't done those things. No one wants to read about an old Armenian Warlock, even if he did banish that werewolf, and the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. If there is one thing I pride myself in, its memory charms. I have used the combined memories of 150 different witches, wizards, and various half-human creatures like werewolves (They got rid of some vampires), and vampires (the opposite)."

"Chief Warlock," said Madam Bones. "I'd like to add 150 counts of Improper Use of a Memory Charm."

"Approved" said Dumbledore. "Now what happened on 3rd January 1993?"

Still under the truth drug Veritaserum, Lockhart was forced to answer. "Potter had information that I needed. I was going to use his memories so that I could invent a Dark Lord that I could have claimed to beaten. However, he wasn't helping out, so I was forced to get his memories by use of a Higher powered curse—the Legilimens Curse. There was plenty of information there, but nothing on how he defeated You-Know-Who. That took about five minutes of him yelping like I was smashing his hand under a hammer. I was preparing to Obliviate him when there was an unprovoked attack on my person by the person now sitting in the Chief Warlock's Chair.

"They then took me into custody, where I confessed what I have done. They then stunned me once again and stripped my clothes off and forced me to wear these 5-sickle robes."

"Prosecutor, would you like to question witnesses?" Dumbledore asked Bones.

"Not at this time, no," she replied.

"You may give a closing statement, Counsellor," Dumbledore said to Madam Bones.

"Very well," she said. "Witches and Wizards of the Wizengamot, this man is accused of heinous crimes against Witches and Wizards everywhere. The man has admitted to using the _Legilimens _curse on the Saviour of our World, Mr Harry James Potter. The man has admitted to removing the memories of many witches, wizards, and other species. This man has collected rewards for the results of his actions. I urge you, Witches and Wizards of the Wizengamot, to find this man guilty of all charges."

"Mr Lockhart, do you have a closing statement?" asked Dumbledore.

"I'm Gilderoy Lockhart, Merlin's gift to you. Now, a man has to make a living somehow, don't he? I just exploited this and made millions of Galleons. I earned an Order of Merlin, Third Class. I earned Membership into the Dark Arts Defence League. I earned _Witch Weekly's _Most Charming Smile Award (five times). I urge you to find me not guilty, as I have committed no crimes."

_Lockhart must be more delusional than we all thought, _thought Ginny. _After all, the man is still under Veritaserum._

"Please raise your wands in the air for a guilty verdict," Dumbledore was saying. Ginny looked. Around three-quarters of the Wizengamot put their wands up. The majority of those had sparks flying out of their wands.

"Please raise your wands for a non-guilty verdict," Dumbledore said after the wands had been counted. Most of the rest raised their wands.

"Please raise your wands for a not proven verdict," Dumbledore called. This was one of the old verdicts still on the books. A couple Members raised their wands.

Umbridge read the votes, "Guilty: 150 votes, Not Guilty: 40 votes, Not Proven: 5 votes, Abstentions: 5 votes."

"Very well," said Dumbledore.

"Mr Lockhart, please stand. On Assault and on Assault of a minor, specifically Mr Harry James Potter, you have been found guilty with a sentence of 10 years in Azkaban, and a 50 thousand Galleon fine. On 150 Counts of Improper Use of a Memory Charm, you have been found guilty with a sentence in Azkaban of 150 years and a 150 thousand Galleon Fine.

"For Mind-Rape and Mind-Rape of a minor, you have been found guilty with a sentence of 50 years in Azkaban without the possibility of parole, and a 100 thousand Galleon Fine. For five counts of Forgery and Fraud, you have been found guilty with a sentence of 40 years in Azkaban, and 50% of the proceeds of your books.

"You will serve these sentences consecutively, for a sentence of 250 years in Azkaban, 50 without the possibility of parole or pardon, a fine of 300,000 Galleons, and 50% of the proceeds of your books. In addition, any remaining money in your accounts will be seized by the Ministry of Magic when you die. Aurors, take him away!"

The Aurors dragged the man away, and the students were Portkeyed back to Hogwarts, where they were all dosed with Calming Potions by Pomfrey.

Ginny was glad that she hadn't been needed to testify. It would have been scary accusing the man in front of all those people.

\\\/

There were two major headlines the next morning. The first read, **Battle in Courtroom after Sentence Read,**while the second was **Lockhart Guilty! Faces Life in Prison!**

_Something must have happened right after we left,_ thought Ginny. When she read the article, she noticed that, among others, the Headmaster had been seriously injured in the attack and battle.

That evening, Professor McGonagall had an announcement. "Due to a disgraceful attack at the Ministry, Headmaster Dumbledore has been seriously injured and is in hospital at this time. I would like to think that you all hope the Headmaster your best." she said. "Under Article 54 of the Hogwarts Charter, I and the Board of Governors are declaring the Headmaster to be incapacitated, and am taking control of the School as Temporary Headmistress. Professor Flitwick is the Temporary Deputy Headmaster. Thank you for your time."

"It must be serious if they are invoking the Charter," said a twin.

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny.

"According to _Hogwarts, A History,_" chimed in Hermione, "If the Headmaster was only very temporarily incapacitated, then they wouldn't even bother to announce it. Now that they've actually announced it, Real Power is given to McGonagall to truly act as Headmistress. The Founders made sure that it was in the wards, so that there could be a transition state between Headmasters."

"In between headmasters?" asked Harry.

"When one headmaster retires, the deputy is immediately promoted to Headmaster, until the next Headmaster can be elected or the former deputy confirmed," replied Hermione.

\\\/

The Defence Classes were a lot better with Auror Professor Shacklebolt. He had a low, deep, voice, so sometimes the students had to strain to hear his voice. He said that he didn't want to talk in a higher register, as he felt like he was yelling.

They were actually learning useful spells, like the Disarming Charm, in class now.

\\\/

Snape was as bad as usual. One day, they were preparing Sleeping Draughts. Snape took 30 points from Ginny for "breathing too loudly", 25 from Neville for "carelessness", and 20 from Harry for "not stopping Longbottom."

"Finally, Dumbledore is out of this school. That Muggle-lover is one of the worst things ever to happen to this school." Malfoy said one Potions class. "Professor," he continued to Snape, "You should apply for Headmaster. I think that you'd be a wonderful Headmaster."

"Professor McGonagall is merely the temporary Headmistress. I am sure that the Headmaster will be back on his feet soon," said Snape. Sneering, he continued, "Draco, get back to your potion. Also, it is...unwise in the current climate to voice such an opinion of the Headmaster."

\\\/

The lack of updates from the _Prophet _or McGonagall about Dumbledore's condition troubled Ginny. In the wake of the Attack, 13 Death Eaters had been sentenced to Life in Prison without the possibility of parole or pardon.

Many of the names were familiar to Ginny, either due to their children being students or due to her father talking about the War. Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were among those sentenced, along with Parkinson, Greengrass, Higgs, and Boson. They were all knut-less now.

A/N:

This chapter will use parts of two different chapters from my original. The Trial was originally Chapter 8, and The Fugitive was originally Chapter 9. I just thought that there was too much unnecessary separation between the two

Book Two:

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word: 'gets' ('Potter gets...') Chap 4

10000th word: 'he' (' The Gryffindors he was excited about') Chap 5

15000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

30000th word (Bk II, Chap 7):

at 29882 words right now

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	9. The Fugative

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 9—The Capture

"It's been too long," said Ginny to the twins. "That name consistently shows up in that location. We have to go to McGonagall."

The twins agreed, so they went down to McGonagall's office.

"What can I do for you?" she asked when she answered her door. "I hope that whatever you have to say is quick because I am rather busy trying to be Headmistress and teach."

"Oh, it is, Ms Headmistress McGonagall, ma'am." said Twin A.

"We have a map of Hogwarts that we found," said Twin B.

"It shows everyone, everywhere, all the time," said Twin A.

"It is showing a person that is known to be dead," said Twin B.

"May I see this map?" asked McGonagall.

The twins took out the map. "We solemnly swear that we are up to no good." they said as they tapped the blank piece of parchment.

Ginny could see ink writing on the page.

"_Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs,_

_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers_

_are proud to present_

_THE MARAUDER'S MAP"_

"Oh, my word." said the Headmistress. "They are back to haunt me."

"Look at the Second Year Boy's Dormitory for Gryffindor," said a twin.

She looked at the map. According to the map, Peter Pettigrew was sitting on Ron's bed.

"What type of pet does Ronald have?" she asked.

"He has a rat," said a twin.

"When did your family get this rat?" asked McGonagall.

"About 11 years ago," said a twin. "Right after..."

"Right after what?"

"The Potter murders," said the other twin bluntly, a look of realisation on his face.

"Percy had him for a while," said the first twin.

McGonagall went to the Floo. "Flitwick!" she called.

A moment later, Flitwick's face appeared in the Floo. "What do you need, Headmistress?"

"I need you to come with me to the Gryffindor Dormitories" she responded. "We have a situation that may require your fighting skills."

"What's wrong" asked the diminutive man.

"There is an unregistered rat Animagus in the Dormitories, one that will most likely not go quietly or be a friendly."

\\\/

A couple of minutes later, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick walked into the Gryffindor Common Room. Immediately, there was silence. McGonagall only came into the Common Room when a) a situation was serious or b) they'd let the Quidditch party go on a bit.

"Mr Ronald Weasley, please lead me to your dormitory." the Headmistress ordered.

Once they got to the Second Years beds, she started to wave her wand. "Where do you keep your rat?"

Ron pointed to an area on the sheets, which McGonagall magicked away to reveal a rat with a single toe missing.

"That is an Animagus, Ronald," she said. Flitwick quickly confirmed. McGonagall cast the Animagus Reversal Charm, and Ron shrieked as a man materialised on the bed. McGonagall stunned the man, and pulled back the man's sleeve.

Ron gave another shriek as everyone present saw that the man had the Dark Mark—the man was a Death Eater.

"Thank you for your help, Mr Weasley," said McGonagall. "Unfortunately, your family will have to undergo some sort of investigation, as your rat is a Death Eater."

McGonagall and Flitwick took the body of the man down to her quarters, from which she called the DMLE. "Please state the nature of your emergency." asked the voice at the other end of the line.

"We'd like DMLE to retrieve a prisoner," McGonagall said. Minutes later, Amelia Bones stepped through the fireplace. "But that's not possible!" she exclaimed on seeing Pettigrew. "Sirius Black killed him back in 1981!"

\\\/

The next morning, the Headlines of the Prophet shouted _Pettigrew no Hero! Secretly a pervert! Lives as Rat for 11 years._

_In a stunning find, Peter Pettigrew, Order of Merlin, 3rd Class, is not as deceased as he led us to believe. Using a device unknown to us, and being held in secrecy, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, the Heads of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, respectively, found Mr Peter Pettigrew, 32, in the Gryffindor's boy Dormitories._

"_Mr Pettigrew is an unregistered Animagus with the form of a rat," read a statement from the school. "As soon as we realised that there was an unauthorised person in the school, we immediately moved to intercept. __Our artefact gave us the exact location of the Suspect, and we were able to cast a Reversal Charm to force him to revert to his Human state."_

_Pettigrew was long thought dead, a victim of Sirius Black, accused of being You-Know-Who's right-hand man, who destroyed a street after betraying the Potters. Twelve Muggles and Pettigrew were thought to have died._

_Pettigrew's discovery calls the known scenario into question. Who was the Secret-Keeper for the Potters? If it was Black, then why attempt to kill a fellow Death Eater._

_The _Daily Prophet _can exclusively reveal that Mr Black's case seems to have slipped through the cracks at the Ministry—no record of a trial for Black has been found. This means that, either there was no trial, or the records of the trial were illegally made to disappear._

_The only records associated with Black in connection with this was a statement from Albus Dumbledore at the time. "As far as I know, Mr Black was the Secret-Keeper for the Potters, however, I cannot recall who actually performed the Fidelius Charm." The Fidelius charm is a rather difficult piece of magic that only a few witches and wizards in our society can perform. It involves giving one person a secret that only the Secret-Keeper can reveal to another person._

\\\/

That evening, there was a special edition of the _Evening Prophet._

_**Pettigrew guilty, Black somewhat innocent**_

_A trial for Peter Pettigrew was held today in Courtroom Ten at the Ministry of Magic. Pettigrew, who was charged with two counts of Being an Accessory to Murder, one count of Accessory to Attempted Murder, False Accusations, Attempted Murder, being an Unregistered Animagus, __being a Death Eater__, and twelve counts of Murder of a Muggle; pleaded not guilty today by reasons of Peer Pressure and the _Imperious _curse._

_By the new law put into place last year, Pettigrew was immediately given Veritaserum, __where he admitted to framing Black and conspiring with You-Know-Who to murder the Potters. Pettigrew also admitted that Black himself was an Animagus illegally. Lastly, Pettigrew named all of the Death Eaters that he could remember. Many so-called prominent citizens were on that list._

"_I was the Secret-Keeper for the Potters," said Pettigrew during testimony. "It was the proudest day of my life when I was able to give My Master the location of the Potters, so that he could kill off that arrogant Potter, and his spawn. The second proudest day of my life was when I was able to fool the whole world and frame Black. It was like killing two Ravens with one Gobstone. I was loyal to The Dark Lord, and I will remain loyal."_

_Pettigrew was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences and one year in Azkaban without the possibility of Parole or Pardon._

_Due to Pettigrew's testimony, Black was immediately released from Azkaban and put on trial for his many actions in regards to the Potters' deaths. In the end, Mr Black was acquitted of all but one charge, Being an Illegal Animagus, and sentenced to one year Azkaban. The Acting Chief Witch of the Wizengamot immediately declared time-served, and fined him 500 Galleons. In addition, Mr Black was given a large sum of galleons (thought to be in the neighbourhood of 10 million Galleons, one million for each year he was illegally in Azkaban, minus the Animagus year) in compensation for his time in Azkaban. _

_Mr Black agreed not to sue the Ministry for his illegal incarceration as a condition of receiving the money._

"_I am grateful that someone in the Ministry finally realised their mistake," said Black after his trial. "I look forward to being free and spending time with my Godson, Harry. Being in Azkaban was a nightmare—the only thing that kept me going was that I knew I wasn't guilty. It wasn't necessarily a happy thought, so the Dementors couldn't take it away from me. For eleven years, I've waited for the day that I'd see my godson again (and some of the pretty girls around town, too). Also, Rosie, make sure to have a glass ready for me!"_

_W__e assume that 'Rosie' is 'Rosmerta' proprietor of the _Three Broomsticks _in Hogsmeade. __Mr Black, who has been released to St Mungo Hospital, is the godfather of the Boy-Who-Lived, and therefore his rightful guardian. We here at the _Prophet _wish Mr Black a speedy recovery and many happy years with his godson (rumoured to also be an adopted son)._

\\\/

Fortunately for Valentine's Day, there were no distractions. When she first met Lockhart, she had the feeling that he seemed the type to decorate for the Holiday.

\\\/

Right before Easter, the Professors started to really get ready for the End-of-Term exams, and were giving the students tons of homework. With all of the homework, it was tough trying to worry about the Headmaster.

\\\/

By Easter, McGonagall was handing out books with the descriptions of the electives available for third years and above. Hermione, naturally, wanted to take every class offered; fortunately, Harry and Ginny were able to dissuade her.

"First of all, half of these are at the same time, so you'd need a Time-Turner or something," said Ginny.

"Second, I've heard Divination is rubbish anyway," said Harry. Harry said this well out of the earshot of Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil, as he knew that they believed in that type of thing.

"Third, you must remember that our World views Muggles as scum, so the class, as it stands, is rather condescending. I think that Percy said that any Muggle-born could sit the OWL and pass the exam without trouble." said Ginny.

In the end, they decided to take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, as they looked interesting.

A/N: Short two chapters, sorry

Book Two:

2500th word:'the' ('she ran out of the kitchen') Chap. 2

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word: 'gets' ('Potter gets...') Chap 4

10000th word: 'he' (' The Gryffindors he was excited about') Chap 5

15000th word:

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

30000th word (Bk II, Chap 7):

at 29882 words right now

50000th word (Bk II, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


	10. The Return

One Missed Traffic Light

a continuation of "One Traffic Light" by witowsmp and "A Missed Traffic Light" by coolhacker1025

This story is not written with that writers permission, nor the permission of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, etc. who own the rights to _Harry Potter. _

"One Traffic Light" by witowsmp may be found at s/7058158/1/One-Traffic-Light on fanfiction. (After / paste/type the s etc)

Chapter 10

_The Trio decided to take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, because they looked interesting_

Ron was a little hacked off that he wouldn't have anyone to help him (read as "cheat for him") in the classes that he was taking. He was taking what some considered to be 'soft options'—Care of Magical Creatures and Divination.

\\\/

A couple of days after Easter, McGonagall called the Trio into her office.

"Have a biscuit and sit down," she said offering a tin. The trio declined.

"Don't be silly," she said thrusting the tin into their faces. They each took one. "I'm sure that your wondering why I called you here?"

They nodded.

"Have you been reading the paper?" she asked. The Trio nodded. "Then you must know that a man named Sirius Black has been released from prison. Now, have you been reading the entire articles?"

"Yes," said Ginny and Hermione. "No" said Harry at the same time.

"When you were born, Mr Potter, Mr Sirius Black was named your Godfather," McGonagall stated as she took out a biscuit. "He was the best friend of your father, so it was a logical choice. In Our world, there's not as much religion, so a Godparent is simply the guardian of a child if the parents are incapacitated, such as Mr Longbottom and yourself."

"Are Neville's parents dead?" asked Harry. "I know that he lives with his Gran."

"No, they are not dead," said McGonagall in a mournful tone. "It would be a lot more merciful if they were, for themselves and for their family. No, they were tortured into insanity by a number of Death Eaters, including You-Know-Who's Right-hand woman, Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Why isn't Neville with his Godparents, then?" asked Harry, almost hoping that his guess was incorrect.

"Because unfortunately, his Godparents died a week before his parents were tortured," said McGonagall, and everyone in the room could hear the sadness in her voice. "I'm sorry, Potter, but your parents were good friends of mine once your father left the school. Neville's mum was your godmother, and Lily was Neville's godmother."

She paused for a minute to collect herself, as she was uncharacteristically emotionally compromised.

"This means that we have a situation concerning your Housing at the end of Term," she continued. "The Headmaster, whom I've been informed will be returning shortly, wishes for you to go to the Dursley's for your own protection."

"Protection? Protection against what?" asked Harry. He nearly spat out the last word. "My own protection?! Do you know how those Muggles treated me?"

Ginny could tell that Harry was about to start a rant, and a rather loud one at that. Already, he was nearly shouting.

"I have never, I do not, nor will I ever, consider No. 4 Privet Drive, my home," he said. He kept ranting on about how the Muggles treated him before McGonagall tried to calm him down.

"I told him not to put you there," she said. It wasn't nearly loud enough at this point. "I told him not to put you there. THEY WERE THE WORST SORT OF MUGGLES I'D EVER LAID EYES ON, I TOLD HIM!" she said, her voice getting louder and louder and descending deeper and deeper into a Scottish accent.

Harry stopped his rant for a minute, "What did you say, Professor?"

McGonagall had slightly calmed down. "I told the Headmaster not to put you in that..._place_ with those _Muggles._ I'm not usually prejudiced, but with your family, Mr Potter, I can make an exception."

"They aren't my family," said Harry. "That's rich of Dumbledore to ignore the advice of his deputy for His Greater Good."

"Mr Potter, for yelling at a teacher, I am going to have to take 5 points," McGonagall said. Ginny and Hermione were shocked. That is, until they heard the next sentence. "For having a good reason to shout at a Professor, I am returning those five points. Now, my preliminary finding is that, pending a couple more check-ups at St Mungos for Mr Black, you will be able to meet your Godfather and live with him this summer. I think that it is rather likely this will happen, as he has already attempted to seduce ten nurses at the Hospital. The nurses were completely willing to be seduced, of course, too."

"Why did you ask us here?" asked Hermione. "I have a feeling that it wasn't to reminisce."

"I wanted you here for two reasons." said the Professor. "First, I needed you here to possibly control Potter if I said something that he didn't like. Second, pending your parents permission, of course, Black has offered for you and your parents to stay at one of his residences."

Harry rushed towards McGonagall and hugged her. McGonagall looked to be slightly uncomfortable. Hermione and Ginny settled for the calmer, "Thank you, Professor."

"Your parents, were cubs of mine as well, Mr Potter, along with their friends Lupin and Black," McGonagall said as they walked out the door. After the door shut, McGonagall said, "The other one doesn't count any longer. He lost that status when he turned traitor and joined You-Know-Who."

\\\/

The last Quidditch match of the season was finally here. It was Gryffindor v Ravenclaw, both teams having 2-0 records. The winner of the match would win the Championship. Unfortunately for the Gryffindor team, one of the Chasers, Katie Bell, was out with a cold, so Wood was forced to play Ginny again.

Naturally, she went in at Chaser, as she'd outplayed Harry in all chaser drills the last two years. Plus, Harry was, in Wood's opinion, a damned good Seeker.

"OK, guys," said Wood. He was quickly interrupted by the chasers, who all said as one, "and Girls"

"And girls," allowed Wood. "This is it. This is the big one. If we win, then we're the champions. We've got two great beaters"

"Yeah!" the team shouted.

"Two tested and True Chasers, and one who is very good,"

"Yeah!"

"And a Seeker who was never failed to win us a match" Wood finished, with a glare that said, "Win or else,"

"We also have a great Keeper" said the twins.

The team flew out onto the field to Jordan calling the line-ups. "For Gryffindor, we have in Goal, Oliver Wood! At Beater, we have Fred and George Weasley! At Chaser, we have Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet! And the late substitution, with her second ever start at eleven years of age, your Third Chaser, Ginny Weasley! And at Seeker, the Second-youngest player at Hogwarts, with his fifth start of his career, Harry Potter!"

Jordan then announced the Ravenclaw team, who had a very pretty Asian girl named Cho Chang as their Seeker. Harry and Ginny weren't thinking about that, though. They were thinking about trying to win their Gryffindor its Second Quidditch Cup in as many years.

Despite being the 'brainy' ones at the school, the Ravenclaws couldn't match the Quidditch prowess of the Mighty Gryffindors. It was a landslide win for the Gryffindors. Ginny managed to score ten goals and five assists, as the Gryffindors scored almost at will.

Harry put the Ravenclaws out of their misery at the 72 minute mark, when he caught the Snitch to end the game. The final score ended up being 500-20 to Gryffindor. The teams shook hands politely and McGonagall brought the trophy down and gave it to Wood, who handed it off to Harry, who handed it to Ginny.

\\\/

The morning before the exams started, the Trio got a very welcome surprise. At breakfast, McGonagall banged her goblet, and said, "Could I have your attention for a minute, please?"

The hall quieted down, and McGonagall stood up from the Headmaster's chair. "As you all know, Headmaster Dumbledore was seriously injured in a battle with suspected Death Eaters at the ministry a couple of months ago. I am very pleased to announce that in approximately ten seconds, the Headmaster will be joining us again."

The doors flew open, and Dumbledore walked in wearing purple robes with stars on them. Harry immediately stood up and started to clap. The rest of the Gryffindors quickly followed, then the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and a couple of the Slytherins. Harry knew that in the Muggle world, at least, to be given a standing ovation was quite an honour.

Ginny could tell that the Headmaster was a bit embarrassed at the Welcome he was getting. He waved his hands in a quieting motion, and the students sat down. "It warms my heart to see and hear the welcome you are giving me," he said. "I am very touched. I do think, however, that there is one more person who deserves applause: Deputy-Headmistress McGonagall for her outstanding work keeping this school running whilst I was injured."

Percy was up before Dumbledore had even finished the last word. He was followed by the other Prefects and the Head Students.

"I wish you well on your exams," said the Headmaster sitting at his customary spot at the Head Table. "Now, if you will excuse me, I need to eat my breakfast."

\\\/

The next couple of weeks were hard for the Trio, as it was exam time. Ginny thought that she did pretty well, and she knew that Hermione and Harry thought the same of themselves, although, Hermione had her usual post-Exams jitters, questioning herself if she got question 16 B wrong or if she wrote down the wrong date for the Lithuanian Goblin Rebellion.

\\\/

A couple of days before term ended, Harry and his girls were called to the Headmaster's Office.

"Professor McGonagall has informed me of your earlier conversation," he said. His tone was neutral. "I made a lot of mistakes concerning you, Harry. My only hope is that you can find it in yourself to forgive an old man for them. Yes, Minerva warned me about the Muggles. I made a mistake their, and while I make mistakes like the next man, mine tend to be correspondingly larger. I thought that being family, they would set aside their ways, and treat you like a normal Human being, instead of the conditions you were raised in. I am very glad that you are a good person: another person, raised in similar conditions, became our last Dark Lord."

"There's only a small bit to forgive, Headmaster." said Harry. "You had no idea that they'd treat me that way."

"I am sorry, Harry. I failed to check on your conditions during your time with the Dursleys, thinking that I would be placing a rather large target on your bag, exposing your location to those who would do you harm. In any case, I do not disagree with your decision to go live with Mr Sirius Black, who I'm sure you know is your Godfather."

\\\/

Soon, the school year ended. Gryffindor won the House Cup for the second year in a row, and the next morning, they were on the _Hogwarts Express_ on their way home.

When they got to the Platform, there was a man whom Harry knew that he knew. The man said, "Harry?" and came over to him.

"Sirius?"

"Yep. You know you look so much like your dad at that age. Except the eyes." remarked Sirius Black.

"Yeah, I've got my mum's eyes," responded Harry as he gave Black a hug. Harry then turned to the girls. The Trio gave each other hugs and kisses goodbye, with the promise that, as soon as things were ready, the girls would be invited over.

A/N:

You might have noticed that I say "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". This is intentional. I don't mean "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Muggle Ireland became independent from the UK in 1916/1919/1921 (Proclamation, Declaration, Anglo-Irish Treaty). Wizarding Ireland, however, doesn't have the religious and other problems that Muggle Ireland has, so it stayed a part of the (Magical) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Book Two:

5000th word: 'Statute' ('violation of the Statute of Secrecy') Chap 3

7500th word: 'gets' ('Potter gets...') Chap 4

10000th word: 'he' (' The Gryffindors he was excited about') Chap 5

15000th word: 'that' ('Fudge knew that...') Chap 8

20000th word: 'they'd' ('you had no idea') Chap 10

Total for Book 2: _20,192 words_

Overall:

20000th word (Bk II, Chap. 2): 'so' ('It feels so good to be around Harry again')

30000th word (Bk II, Chap 7): 'Hermione' ('Hermione get the Headmaster')

currently at 37,723 words

40000th word (Bk III)

50000th word (Bk III, unknown)

(these word counts are the number of words with the chapter titles, but without the (sometimes extensive) Author's Notes


End file.
